Graduation
by blackxxcat013
Summary: Warning!Malexmale! No smut. Fuji and Ryoma get closer than friends are meant to be. When Ryoma realizes his feelings for the other, how would he cope when he finds out that he has to leave the country yet again and that a certain captain has come back?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

A few days after the Nationals ended, Seigaku had resumed the club's tennis practice. They were already preparing for the ranking match in the beginning of the next school year for they were going to lose a number of the regulars.

Though they didn't have to as their graduation was quickly approaching, the former regulars still came by to participate in the club and to help the other members. The most frequent visitor amongst these regulars was Inui Sadaharu. He came, stirring fear in the hearts of the members by bringing a gallon of his newest concoction – the Inui Marvelous Delicious Juice Deluxe- whenever he visited. It emitted dark smoke and made a low hissing noise. Coach Ryuzaki would always look at it with disgust.

"You don't have to bring that here you know."

"I have to. It's for the data," Inui said, an evil smile plastered on his face. The Coach scowled.

The rest of the former regulars stood behind them, watching as the Coach scolded Inui but to no avail, clearly amused.

"Heard anything from Tezuka?" Coach Ryuzaki asked, looking over her shoulder to look at the others.

"Oh. He called earlier. He's doing fine there in Germany. He also said to give you his regards," Oishi smiled.

"I see. So, what do you think?" Coach Ryuzaki answered. "Of the team, I mean."

"They're improving but it seems they're lacking something," Oishi looked at the club members once again and shook his head. "Tezuka will be disappointed though if they keep this up."

"Hey!" an all too familiar voice called. Turning to their right, they saw the spiky haired teen running towards them with bandanna wearing teen in tow.

"Momo! Kaidoh! It's nice to see you again," Oishi happily greeted his underclassmen.

"You were here yesterday too, sempai…" Momo raised an eyebrow at him. The others, excluding Kaidoh and Inui, laughed at the mistake, causing a tint of red to creep on Oishi's face.

Eiji looked around for his favorite freshman, pouting when the other didn't enter his line of sight. "Where's Ochibi? Is he late again?" The other regulars followed his gaze.

"Who knows… He's been coming to the last thirty minutes of practice most of the time," Momo replied, scratching the back of his head.

"He's been skipping a few of the practices too," Kaidoh added.

"Actually, his father had called a few days ago," a few of them flinched when they heard the coach's voice, forgetting that she was there. "It seems that he sprained his ankle pretty bad the other day. He won't be playing for a while."

"He let his guard down," Eiji said, mimicking Tezuka's low voice and laughed, causing the other members to laugh as well. He turned to OIshi, eyes brimming with excitement. "I know! I know!"

"Yes, Eiji?" Oishi asked, and Eiji beamed.

"Can we go visit Ochibi? After their practice of course," he tilted his head towards the direction of Momo and Kaidoh and looked at Oishi expectantly. The latter turned to look at the others, his gaze asking them for their approval.

"Can we? Can we?" Eiji was practically jumping in excitement.

Oishi sighed at Eiji's behavior, a wide smile on his lips. "Okay. We'll go." He turned to the others, once again asking if they are coming. "Are you guys coming?"

Everyone agreed, saying that there was nothing else to do after the practice. Taka stepped forward, suggesting that they pass by his family's sushi shop before going to Echizen's house to get the injured boy a treat.

Inui laughed that menacing laugh of his, an evil glint on his glasses. "Maybe I can get him to try my latest creation…" he said, more to himself than to the others, and ignoring the stares he received from the others.

Brushing off Inui's antics, they turned to plan on what to do and what to bring to Echizen's house or they would have, if they didn't hear a low chuckle coming from the brown-haired prodigy. They froze, slowly turning to face the source of the chuckle.

"This is going to be interesting…" Fuji mumbled to himself, wearing the widest smile the others have ever seen. He was oblivious to the stares he got from everyone else, stares that were a mixture of fear and worry. They stepped away from him, scared of what he may do, and watched as the prodigy only raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence, his smile still in place.

The club practice that day ended fairly quickly. Everyone, except for Fuji, Inui and Taka, met up in the clubroom.

Taka had gone ahead to his family's shop to personally prepare the sushi that they were going to give Echizen.

Inui was spotted with Coach Ryuuzaki either talking about the new training menu or arguing, yet again, about Inui's weird creations.

Fuji, on the other hand, had simply disappeared.

"Where did Fujiko go?" Eiji asked, tilting his head.

Oishi was walking back and forth in the clubroom, staring directly at the floor while he was nibbling on his fingernail. Something was just not right and he could feel it.

"What if Fuji-senpai is already at Echizen's house? Maybe that's why he's not here." Momoshiro said, scratching the back of his head. Upon hearing this statement, Oishi stopped. His face was suddenly drained of all the color that was once there.

Eiji jumped at him, almost immediately, when he saw the distressed look on Oishi's face, thinking that talking about his favorite toothpaste would calm the other down.

And though Oishi was thankful for his friend's efforts in distracting him, all he could really think of was 'Uh-oh'.

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**A/N: This is set after the first Prince of Tennis series. When i started scribbling this facfic down on some random notebook i found at home, the Nationals hadn't even ended yet! That's how long it took me to finish this... I'll upload the next one soon... I hope... Anyways~~Thanks so much for reading! Hope you guys liked it!~~ Please do review~~~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

DING DONG!

Fuji stood in front of the Echizen household, a brown paper bag in his hand and his trademark smile firmly in place.

A woman with long black hair, a little past her shoulders, came out from the front door and hurried over to the gate. She opened the gate and stepped aside to let Fuji in.

A little bewildered by her behavior, Fuji's smile dropped slightly as he stared at her. He was sure that they had not met, yet the other was freely inviting him inside.

Sensing his slight worry, she chuckled. "You're one of Ryoma-san's sempais right?" Fuji nodded. "I knew it. I've seen you before. At the National Tournament, I mean. I was there," she said, smiling.

They stood there for a while smiling at each other, an awkward silence fell upon them. And the woman would have forgotten what they were doing, standing by the front gate, if Fuji didn't clear his throat.

"Ah! I'm sorry. I'm Nanako, Meino Nanako, Ryoma-san's cousin. Come in," she said, giving a little bow to the visitor and stepped aside once again to let him in.

After giving her a bow himself, he followed her to the front door, not being able to introduce himself properly. Right after they had given each other a bow, Nanako had immediately closed the gate behind him and turned towards the front door.

"Do you want anything to drink... um.." upon entering the nice traditional house, Nanako faced him, suddenly realizing that she never gave the other time to introduce himself. "I'm sorry.. umm.."

"Fuji. I'm Fuji Syuusuke, Echizen-kun's sempai in the club. It's nice to meet you," he smiled before bowing once again.

"Ah! It's the photography sempai with weird tastes!" Fuji's eyebrow twitched at the statement. "Yes, yes. I've heard Ryoma-san talk about you before. He's sleeping in his room now, I think. Here, this way," she chirped, happy that her cousin had friends other than that loud-mouthed guy with the bicycle. She wasn't even sure what his name was.

Nanako led Fuji towards Echizen's room and climbed up the stairs, the sound of their slippers against the wooden floor echoing against the walls. He took in every detail of the traditionally-styled house, allowing himself to get lost in its beauty.

Nanako stopped walking and turned to him. "This is his room. I'll be downstairs in the kitchen if you need anything."

Fuji stared at the door for a while after she had left him alone, thinking if he should knock or just go in the room. Being the polite person he is, he knocks on the door once, twice and waits for a response. There was no reply.

Knocking again, he heard a shuffle from inside the room and an annoyed groan. He knocks again, just for fun, and laughs to himself when he hears a muffled but annoyed "Go away! I want to sleep!" from his underclassman.

He enters the room, not bothering to ask for Echizen's permission anymore because he was sure that the younger male would just say no.

"Hi there, Echizen," Fuji greeted, ignoring the way the other male groaned and glared at him.

He looked around the room, not expecting it to be as neat as it is. He thought Echizen, being as lazy as he is, would have a messy room- messy enough that one couldn't see where they were stepping.

Echizen sat up slowly while rubbing his eyes, accidentally hitting his elbow on his bedside table. He grumbled, rubbing his elbow, and glared at Fuji who just chuckled at him.

"Why are you here, Fuji-senpai?" he said, narrowing his eyes at the older man.

"I just came to visit you. I haven't seen you in so long and-"Echizen groaned again. "Is there a problem with me being here?" he looked at the raven-haired boy, a glimmer of evil in his smile.

"Che," Echizen answered, positioning himself so that his legs are dangling over the floor.

"Careful. We don't want your injury to worsen, do we?" Fuji hurried over to the other's side, putting down the brown paper bag on the bedside table.

"I'm fine. It's just a sprain anyway. It'll go away." He answered after finding a comfortable position. "Do you need anything? Water? You still are my guest after all."

"No thank you. I'm good," Fuji smiled, sitting beside the injured boy. "So, what happened? You're not that careless that you'd actually get yourself injured."

Echizen looked away, not wanting to answer Fuji's question. They were met with silence. He decided, then, that Fuji was a stubborn guy, not wanting to leave until he heard an answer to his question.

He shifted uncomfortably, hesitating if he should answer. "W-well…" he stuttered. "Karupin was playing near the stairs the other day and nearly fell. I just hurried and caught him before he fell is all," he added, still not looking at his sempai.

"And fell yourself?" he asked, chuckling to himself when he saw the other twitch. "You really did let your guard down," and he laughed wholeheartedly at the other's expression that was a mix of shock and annoyance. "It's good that you didn't get a much serious injury," he added after containing his laughter.

Echizen huffed and slid a hand through his hair. "Don't tell anyone."

"I won't."

"Do you still visit the club?"

"Yes. You haven't really gone there regularly," his smile dropped a bit. "Everyone's worried."

Echizen turned to face him at that last statement, meeting the other's blue eyes. The room turned quiet as they stared at each other.

The injured boy cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable because of the silence around them. "Speaking of everyone, where are they?"

Fuji closed his eyes, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "I left them at Seigaku. They're probably going to be here soon though."

Echizen shuddered at the thought of having everyone else over at his house. Momoshiro's noisiness is troublesome on its own but with Eiji's hyper activeness, it would be much more of a headache.

Sensing the other's slight worry, Fuji laughed to himself. "Don't worry. I'll save you from Momo and Eiji," he teased, receiving a groan in response.

After a while, they ended up talking about tennis, school, their lives and anything that comes into mind, laughing whenever something funny came up.

Echizen was a bit surprised by this other, much kinder and more caring, side of Fuji. And though he would not admit it, he had a good time with the latter.

"Hmm, it's two o' clock already? I should probably get going," Fuji started and stood up from Echizen's bed, his smile dropping when his stomach grumbled.

As if on cue, Nanako came in the room holding a tray filled with food. "I'm sorry for the wai-," slightly closing the door behind her, she paused, just noticing that Fuji was already getting ready to leave. "Eh? Leaving already? Stay a little longer! It's okay. Ryoma-kun gets lonely in here too," she laughed, receiving a glare from her cousin.

Carefully placing the tray of food on the desk that was beside the door, she turned to look back at Fuji. "Atleast eat what I prepared, okay?" And with that, she happily slipped out the door, closing it, and going back to whatever she was doing before.

"She's really… um… happy?" Echizen laughed at his comment.

"Yeah. She's probably just happy that I know someone sensible, someone other than Momo-sempai," Echizen watched as Fuji raised an eyebrow at him before going to the desk and getting the tray of food, dragging the chair behind him.

He smiled, thanking Fuji for bringing the food over, and looked at the other before taking a spoonful of his rice and bringing it to his mouth. He observed, slightly mesmerized, as the other ate the food in silence.

And when he was about to bring a second spoonful of rice to his mouth… SLAM!

The two in the room turned their heads towards the door and Echizen cringed when he saw who it was.

"How dare you?"

TO BE CONTINUED….

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**A/N: Aaaah... the second chapter was longer than i thought it would be... and that seems to be a weird line to end this chapter with... Well... the story, really, is already done... all i have to do is to type it... but yeah... i get distracted when i'm on the computer... i typed this chapter up as fast as i could! And umm... I'm not really sure how Nanako calls Ryoma.. I don't recall her actually talking to him... And I'm too lazy to go back and watch/read the series to check... I'm sorry... And, another thing... does anyone know Karupin's gender? I'm not quite sure about that either... so I turned Karupin into a guy~~ Thanks again for reading~~ I'll put up the next chapter as fast as possible! Please do review~~**

**Thanks to Tennis no ojou-sama for the heads up on this one~~~ I changed how Nanako calls Ryoma in my fic~~**

**And i forgot to mention this before~~~ Thanks to those who added my fic to their favorites~~ And thanks to those who reviewed~~~ I really appreciate it!~~ XDD**

**~~blackxxcat013~~**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"How dare you?" Eiji stomped into the room, his eyes narrowing at Fuji, with the rest of the regulars behind him. "You're so unfair, keeping O'chibi to yourself…" the redheaded guy pouted.

Echizen rubbed the bridge of his nose after placing his bowl of rice and his utensils on the bedside table, groaning to himself when Eiji started to talk again.

"Ahhh! Fuji! How could you leave me at Seigaku and play with O'chibi alone?" he said, placing his hands on his hips, before going over to Echizen and giving him one of his deadly hugs.

Fuji tapped Eiji's shoulder, earning a glare from the latter.

"What now? Can't I hug O'chibi in peace?"

The brown-haired prodigy opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the former vice captain.

"Eiji," Oishi called him, a warning not to ask anything anymore. "Echizen is injured. Let him go for today."Eiji let go of the younger boy reluctantly, pouting as he did so.

"We brought you sushi, Echizen," Taka emerged from the back of the group, holding a plastic bag, and smiled sheepishly at the raven-haired boy.

"To make you feel better," Oishi added, almost immediately.

Echizen couldn't help but smile. "Thanks," he managed to say, looking at every member present.

"What happened to you anyway?" Momo spoke up, failing to notice how Echizen tensed after hearing his question.

"What did you guys do after I left?" Fuji interrupted, sensing Echizen's slight anxiety, and gave the latter a soft smile.

"Well," Momo paused, slightly confused, and scratched the back of his head. "We went to Kawamura-sempai's shop to help him make the sushi." Echizen's face twisted in disgust at the thought of Inui helping in the sushi making, making everyone laugh in the process.

"Don't worry! Inui-sempai was banned from the kitchen. You're safe." A sigh of relief came escaped from Echizen's lips. The room was immediately filled with laughter.

"Well, we should get going now. We wouldn't want to disrupt your rest," Oishi said, looking at his watch.

"Eh?" Eiji started to whine. "But we just got here!"

"That's okay." Fuji looked at Echizen and back at Eiji. "If Echizen lets you, you can always visit him tomorrow." Eiji faced Echizen almost immediately after the statement, gaze pleading the younger one to say yes.

"Whatever," Echizen huffed.

"Yay!" giving the injured boy one big hug; Eiji clung onto Oishi's arm. "I'll come back tomorrow O'chibi! Bye!" Eiji left, dragging a rather confused Oishi with him. The others, except Fuji, soon followed the earlier pair. Their voices and their laughter could still be heard from the halls.

Soon, the room turned quiet. Fuji glanced at Echizen who looked at his feet.

"Hmmm… I guess I should get going as well. Thanks for having me over, Echizen," he ruffled the younger's hair before turning to walk towards the door.

"Ah! Wait! You forgot you bag – thing," he pushed himself to his feet and stood, accidentally putting his weight on his sprained ankle.

Fuji was immediately by his side to help. "Don't force yourself."

"But your paper bag - ."

"Oh, that's yours," he reached for the paper bag and gave it to the younger boy. "Do me a favor and open it after I've left, okay? See you tomorrow, Echizen," once again, he ruffled the injured boy's hair and made his way towards the bedroom door.

He paused at the doorway and turned to Echizen. "See you tomorrow," he repeated and gave the other a small wave, his smile growing wide.

He thanked Nanako for her hospitality and left the household, chuckling to himself as he imagined what Echizen's face would be like when sees the content of the paper bag.

...

Later that night, Nanako had brought Echizen his dinner, on a tray, like she would for the past few days since he got injured. After he was done eating, he put the tray aside and glanced at the small brown paper bag on the bedside table.

He kept taking glances between the paper bag and the door, as if worried that he would get caught doing something wrong. He wasn't really worried. He just didn't want any disturbances when he's opening the paper bag.

Nanako came in the room after knocking twice, swiftly taking the food tray and paused at the door to say good night before leaving the room.

Echizen took the bag from the bedside table and stared at it for what seemed like hours.

The sound of scratching could be heard from the direction of the door. Echizen eyed the door, thinking if he should open it or not. And then, the scratching stopped.

"Karupin," Nanako called. "Let Ryoma-san rest today, okay?" Her footsteps grew quiet as she walked away from Echizen's room.

Echizen placed the bag on his bed, stood up and carefully walked towards the door, trying not to put much of his weight on his sprained ankle. He opened the door and looked at the empty hallway.

'Seriously! I'm fine! I can walk! See!' he thought, slamming the door shut behind him. 'They just pamper me too much…'

Sitting back down on his bed, he grabbed a pillow and hugged it close to his chest.

"Karupin," he called. "I wonder how he's doing right now…"

His eyes, once again, fell on the bag that Fuji left for him. He reached for it again, only to debate with himself if he should open It or not.

'Do me a favor and open it after I've left, okay?' This line kept replaying in Echizen's head. It made him even more curious about the bad. Thoughts like 'Why would he want to leave before I open his gift?' and 'Would this gift kill me?' would come to his mind.

Gently, he removed the piece of tape that was sealing the bag and took a peek inside. He carefully took out the content of the bag, smiling when he saw what it was. It was a small plushie of a Himalayan cat that looked exactly like Karupin, hugging a huge tennis ball.

He placed the paper bag on the bedside table and turned off the lights to his room. Positioning himself in bed, he pulled his blanket over him and placed the plushie next to him.

'I have to thank Fuji-sempai for this tomorrow,' he thought, smiling as he drifted to sleep.

**

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A/N: Okay… Here goes the third chapter! This was originally supposed to be in two separate parts… the top half… was originally the third chapter… and then the second half is chapter four… But when I looked at them… they were both too short… and I had a feeling that the first half was completely unnecessary…. Anyways… sorry it's a bit late… I was really distracted this time….

**Thank you to all those who reviewed my fanfic~~~ I really appreciate it~~ **

**Thanks for reading again~~ As always… please do review~~~ Expect an angry Yuuta in the next chapter~~ Heehee~~**

**- blackxxcat013 XD**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Echizen woke up earlier than usual the next day, cheerful and still holding on to the gift that he received.

Nanako came in the room to check on her cousin, surprised to find him at his desk instead of his bed.

"Ryoma-san?" Echizen lifted his head to face her. "H-how?"

Echizen rolled his eyes, and replied. "I walked, of course."

"It doesn't hurt anymore?"

"No… Not really."

"Do you think you can move around now?"

"Well, it has been three days," he said, looking at his feet before his stomach grumbled loudly. "Um… Can I eat breakfast now?"

Nanako could only giggle at her cousin. "I have to get Kawamura-kun's sushi ready first, if you don't mind having that for breakfast. You can watch TV while you wait," she proceeded out the door, Echizen trailing slowly behind her, still careful not to put too much pressure on his injury.

Breakfast ended fairly quickly. Echizen went straight to the living room where Karupin greeted him happily, setting himself on his owner's lap and falling fast asleep.

The raven-haired boy turned on the TV and flipped through a few channels while petting the cat's head, the plushie sitting by his side.

Finding nothing interesting to watch, he turned off the T.V and carefully removed Karupin from his lap, placing the sleeping cat on the sofa. He started walking towards the kitchen hoping to find a bag of chips, despite just having eaten breakfast, when the doorbell rang. Nanako, who was in the kitchen at the time – cleaning the dishes, peeked into the living room.

"I'll get it," Echizen stated, getting a grateful smile from his cousin.

He opened the door, not bothering to stop by the intercom and check who the visitor is, and made his way to the front gate. Opening the gate, he was slightly surprised to be greeted by a warm smile.

"Good morning, Echizen," his visitor greeted.

"Fuji-sempai," he greeted back, not really believing that his upperclassman would visit him so early in the day.

"Do you want to talk here or do you want to talk inside?" Fuji asked, tilting his head towards the house.

"Oh. Yeah. Come in," Echizen stepped aside to let the other into the house.

"I'm glad that you're feeling better, Echizen," the brown-haired prodigy said after taking off his shoes, facing the younger boy and ruffling his hair.

Echizen only stared at his sempai's eyes and for a moment, there was a comfortable silence enveloping them as their gazes met.

"Who was it, Ryoma-san?" Echizen immediately stepped away from Fuji, and the older boy just chuckled as he placed his hand by his side. Nanako came into the room, still wearing her apron. Her eyes traveled from her cousin to the smiling guest next to him, confused as to why he grew so stiff beside the older male.

"Hi. I'm here again," Fuji waved.

"Hello. Well, I'll leave you two alone. If you need me I'll be in the study room," and with that, she left, taking off her apron and placing it on a hook in the kitchen.

Fuji watched her cheerily walk away, not noticing Echizen pass by him to the living room.

"Sempai! The living room is over here!" Echizen shouted from the sofa, dropping on it and picking the sleeping cat to place on his lap once again. He turned the TV on and flipped through the channels again, still not finding anything interesting. With a sigh, he settled on a channel showing a variety show that was interviewing a popular band.

Fuji chuckled to himself and walked towards the living room. As he got closer to the sofa, he noticed the plushie sitting beside the raven-haired boy.

"Do you like it?" he asked, still standing.

"Hmmm?" Echizen answered, not realizing that he was being spoken to.

Echizen's eyes softened and his lips curved up into a warm smile. Fuji's smile dropped at the sight, taken aback and not expecting such an expression from the younger one.

"I love it. Thank you," the younger one said softly, but enough for Fuji to hear.

He smiled again and sat down next to the boy. "I'm glad you like it, Echizen."

The two boys remained silent for a while. The only sounds heard were the laughter coming from the TV and the soft mewls coming from the sleeping Karupin.

"Do you know when you'll be able to play again?" Fuji asked, finally breaking the silence.

"I dunno. Maybe in a day or two," was Echizen's instant reply.

"I see…" Fuji mumbled to himself and looked back at the TV.

He opened his mouth to ask the younger one another question when – "AAAAANIKIIII!" Fuji Yuuta's voice echoed through the room, startling both Echizen and his cat.

Karupin leaped off of his master's lap and ran to the kitchen, his master too busy staring wide-eyed at Fuji to follow him.

"Is your brother outside? Why doesn't he just use the doorbell?" He stood up and went towards the door, opening it to check the front gate.

"AAAAANIKIIII!" another shout.

"He's not there!" he turned to face Fuji. And when he saw the wide grin on the older boy's face, his eyes narrowed on him. "You."

"Do you like it?" Fuji took his phone out of his pocket.

"AAAAANIKIIII!" the shout only got louder.

"It's his ringtone…" Echizen leaned himself against the doorframe and placed his hand on his forehead.

Fuji's grin only grew wider at the younger one's reaction. "He flipped his phone open and put it next to his ear only to pull it slightly away. Echizen watched as Fuji talked to the person on the line, slightly amused at the slight changes in Fuji's expression.

"ANIKI!" the real Fuji Yuuta was shouting into his ear. "Where are you? I thought you said you were going to Seigaku?"

"Hmm? I don't remember telling you that," Fuji pouted, even though he knew that his brother can't see him.

"But you told aneki that you were going to Seigaku this morning!"

"Oh yeah. That," he glanced over at Echizen, smiling at him as their gazes met for a brief second. "That was so she wouldn't fuss over me. Besides, when I arrived at Seigaku, there was no one there. I didn't want to be alone."

Echizen sat back down on his spot on the sofa and started playing with the plushie. Nanako had come out of the study room with Karupin I her hands, going over to the couch to tell her cousin that she'll be in her room.

"I'm at Echizen's house. No, I'm not forcing him to play with me," Echizen watched as Fuji suddenly shot up from the couch. "Yuuta…" his eyebrow raised as Fuji paused, pulling his phone away from his ear and looking at its screen.

Bursts of laughter came from the TV. Echizen stared at Fuji, confused of what he had just heard. Fuji closed his phone and put it back in his pocket before sitting back down on the sofa with a sigh.

"What was that about?" the younger one asked, settling the plushie on his lap.

"Oishi thinks I'm harassing you. Eiji thinks I'm keeping you all to myself again," another sigh. "Yuuta's just angry."

"Why?"

"Pardon?"

"Why is he angry?"

"Well, I lied to him."Fuji turned to look at him and smiled at him again. "Oh and they told me that they were going to come over."

Echizen's eyes grew wide at the statement. He instantly stood up from his seat and stared at his sempai. "When?"

"Now," just as the brown-haired prodigy said it, the doorbell rang.

**

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A/N:

**This is soooo overdue… I'm sooo sorry…Yeah… There's been soooo many distractions…. I've finally got P3P and it's really got me hooked to it, enough that I imagine social link ranks when I talk to my friends (I wonder if you'd know what I'm saying… some would probably…) but not enough that my hands are glued to my PSP…. I haven't even finished the game yet…. T^T oh well….. **

**I**

'**ll put the next one up as soon as I can…More angry Yuuta on the next one…. Oh yeah.. I feel like I should apologize… when I wrote the author's note for the previous one… I didn't look at the chapter… so I thought that Yuuta would actually have more parts in this one… but apparently not…. oh well…. **

**Thankyou readers for following this story… there's gonna be more to come… reviewers too~~ You're feedback is greatly appreciated… If you do find any errors, feel free to tell me~**

**To Lady Queria = hmmm… I'm not even sure who imperial pair is… there's sooo much PoT pairs out there and I'm not really familiar with their names… save for thrill, golden, platinum, and some others…. Please do remind me~~ XD**

**Again… thanks for reading… reviews would be greatly appreciated~~~ XDD**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

_"Now," just as the brown-haired prodigy said it, the doorbell rang._

Echizen looked at the intercom and saw the faces of an angry Yuuta and an angry Eiji. He gulped down the lump forming in his throat. He took a deep breath, preparing himself mentally for what would happen.

He walked towards the gate, Fuji trailing calmly behind him. When the gate opened just a tiny bit, Yuuta charged inside, unconsciously pushing the door to the side harder than he should have, and hit Echizen's face with the gate. . Eiji came in after Yuuta, dragging Oishi behind him.

Shocked, Fuji's eyes widened. Thinking that Fuji was actually frightened of him, Yuuta proceeded into shouting, "YOU! You said you were going to Seigaku! And to think that I even went there to meet you!" Fuji started walking towards him, his steps getting faster. "How dare you-"

The younger Fuji was cut off as his brother walked past and stopped beside Echizen, who was crouched down on the ground. Oishi paled and his jaw dropped.

"E-echizen… are you okay?" Fuji asked as he helped Echizen stand up.

"My nose…" Echizen carefully brought his head up, his hand covering his abused nose. "Is it still there?"

"It's still there Echizen," Fuji laughed before turning to his brother. "You have to be careful next time, Yuuta," he said, sending chills down Yuuta's spine.

Oishi immediately went to Echizen's side, bombarding him with questions and immensely showing his worry.

Yuuta groaned. "Look. I came to bring the camera you left at my dorm," he took out the camera from his bag and shoved it into his brother's hands. "Here!"

Fuji stared at the camera in his hands, and then looked at Yuuta. "You could've left it at home, you know. Or you could've given it to Yumiko-nee chan," he said, checking the pictures left in the camera's memory, and smiled.

"Yeah, but aneki wasn't at home and I left the house keys in my dorm room."

"FOR THE LAST TIME, MY NOSE IS JUST FINE!" as Fuji turned to face him, Echizen slid behind the older hoping to hide himself from Eiji and Oishi.

And Fuji confronted the Golden Pair, trying to calm them down and take their minds away from Echizen's injury of sorts.

"Echizen," the younger boy turned at his name. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to hit you," Yuuta apologized quietly, suddenly feeling guilt from accidentally hitting the boy.

Echizen nonchalantly shrugged at him, meaning to say that it's okay without actually putting it in words. Yuuta though, on the other hand, thought that Echizen was only being his cocky self and didn't care about his existence at all.

"Y-you!" he tried hard not to lose to his temper, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to get away just raising his voice at the raven-haired boy with three seniors from Seigaku around. Three seniors from Seigaku that care for Echizen so much, no less.

"Yuuta, was that all you wanted?" Fuji said, turning away from Oishi whose face was drained of all its color.

"Sempai… what did you do?" Echizen asked, not quite amused, referring to Oishi.

"That's a secret, Echizen-kun," he clearly emphasized the '-kun' part earning a groan from the younger.

"I'm taking Oishi home…. Or to Seigaku….Somewhere away from here…" Eiji said nervously, putting Oishi's arm over his shoulder so that he could support him.

"Eh? But you just came!" Fuji replied innocently, slightly pouting his lips.

Eiji laughed nervously, slightly backing away from the prodigy. "Have fun with Fuji, okay O'chibi?" he put on a nervous smile before leaving the household, dragging Oishi with him.

A heavy silence fell on the three of them that were left behind. Yuuta cleared his throat and started walking away; saying that he also had to go.

Fuji immediately turned to him, a sad look on his features. "Not you too, Yuuta."

"Mizuki-san is waiting for me back at the dorm," he answered, nervously. "He's helping me with my training."

Fuji's eyes cracked open at the sound of Mizuki's name, his smile dropping for a bit. Regaining his composure, his eyes shut close again and a small pout fixed itself on his face.

"But, don't you want to stay here instead with your brother?" Fuji started walking towards Yuuta.

Echizen leaned against the gate, amused at the sudden show in front of him though it didn't show on his face.

"It's for practice, aniki," Yuuta raised his voice.

"You know very well that that Mitsuru creep doesn't do you any good. Stop hanging out with him," the older Fuji scolded. Yuuta rolled his eyes and stepped out the gate without as much as a goodbye.

Echizen smirked at Fuji. "You kind of sounded like a mother there," he commented.

Fuji's face immediately brightened, his smile quickly going back to place. "Oh, really?"

Echizen nodded and started walking back to the house after he had closed the gate. "You said you lied to him?"

"Yep." Fuji followed behind him, as if afraid he would get lost in the Echizen's front yard.

"And the first time he saw you today was here at my house?" as they entered the house, Echizen made his way to the kitchen, getting himself a glass of water and leaving Fuji to close the front door.

"Yep," he followed Echizen into the kitchen, quietly watching the boy drink his water.

"You didn't go to Seigaku?" he placed the empty glass in the kitchen sink and looked at Fuji, just realizing that he didn't offer the older boy a thing despite being his host. "Do you want something to drink?"

"No thank you. Well, I did go to Seigaku. But when I got there, there was no one there yet. So, I left and came here instead," Fuji explained, watching as the younger boy's brows furrow together.

"What time did you go there?"

"Around…. 7:00?" Echizen groaned.

"You were a regular just days ago, you kind of still are until you graduate, but you –of all people- should know that morning practice doesn't start until 7:30!" He took out another glass from one of the shelves and filled it with water to drink. "Such a weird sempai," he grumbled.

Fuji only raised an eyebrow at him.

"What did you really come here for, sempai? Is there something you want from me?," Echizen asked, hoping that Fuji would give him a decent answer.

"I don't want anything from you Echizen. Can't I just come and visit a precious kouhai?" Fuji touched his cheek and put on a slightly sad face, hoping to appeal to the younger one with his 'charm'.

"Really, why are you here?" he raised an eyebrow, noticing how often Fuji acted cute in the past hour. He inwardly groaned when he thought that the older boy was actually enjoying the act.

"I'm bored," Fuji answered flatly.

Echizen rolled his eyes, stomping away from the senior. '_Of course, there's nothing else better to do than tormenting one's underclassman,' _he thought, disregarding the fact that he actually wanted to see the older boy after the night before.

"Echizen, if you keep stomping your ankle will get worse."

"Stay here for a while," he grabbed the plushie from the sofa and headed upstairs to his room. Fuji watched him do so. His smile growing wide as Echizen winced from stepped on his foot too hard.

The younger boy came back into the living room all dressed to go out, in a slightly loose faded red t-shirt and his black shorts, albeit without his cap.

Nanako, at the time, just came down from her own room to get a glass of water from the kitchen. "You're going out?" she asked once she spotted her cousin.

"Yeah. I need some fresh air. It feels weird just staying inside here."

"Are you going to be alright? Do you want me to go with you?" Nanako asked again, knowing full well that her cousin can take care of himself yet not really sure if he's going to be completely fine.

"It's fine. Fuji-sempai is coming with me," he made his way to the front door, stopping slightly beside Fuji by the couch and tilting his head at the older boy's direction before continuing on his way.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"Yes," he rolled his eyes, even though he knew that she wouldn't be able to see, and put on his shoes. "Tell her Fuji-sempai."

The brown-haired prodigy chuckled and faced Nanako, giving her the best reassuring smile he could give. "Yes. I'll take care of him, don't worry."

"A-and… on the way home?" Nanako knew that Fuji was a trustworthy guy but she didn't want her cousin in any more accidents, especially after the one at Karuizawa. Her gaze going from Fuji's friendly face to her cousin's back at the door step.

"I'll bring him back," Fuji said, slightly stepping forward in an attempt to get her attention - which he did, before going to where Echizen was and putting on his shoes as well.

Echizen stood up. "Well, that's it. I won't take long." And he proceeded out the door, after slightly turning to give his cousin one assuring gaze that he'll be fine and that she worries too much, towards the front gate.

Nanako heaved a sigh of defeat. Once Echizen has made up his mind, he goes for it after all.

Fuji straigtened up after he had his shoes on and smiled at her. "He probably just wants to go see how the other members at Seigaku are doing, so don't worry anymore." He said, noticing the way Nanako's shoulders relax just a bit, before following Echizen to the gate, not wanting to be left behind by the younger boy. He did promise to bring him back after all.

* * *

**A/N: Okay….. I've been slacking a lot… yeah… sorry about that... So… that's all for angry Yuuta… I think… he's the only none Seigaku character that we're going to see in this fic…. And…. I think there will be mentions of other people too… but I'm not too sure…. It's been a while since I've actually read my own fanfic… it's weird…. And~~ I leave it up to you guys to figure out what Fuji did or said to Oishi~~ I'd like to hear about them too~ so if it's not a bother can you guys tell me? XD**

**Thanks guys for reading~~~ Please do review~~ Thanks again~~~ **

**If you find any errors… please don't hesitate to tell me about it~~ **

**Blackxxcat013**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Echizen stood, leaning against the pillar by their gate, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed as he faced the sun.

"What took you so long?" he scowled as Fuji appeared beside him.

"Your cousin doesn't really trust me that much," he answered, a wide smile on his face. "She probably doesn't want this strange person to harm her most beloved cousin," he added, his smile widening even more.

Echizen pushed himself off of the pillar and raised an eyebrow at his upperclassman. "Che, strange indeed."

"So," Echizen started walking and he followed slowly behind him. "Where are we going?" though he already knew the answer, he felt that he simply needed to ask this question out loud.

"Seigaku. I want to see how the others are doing, probably apologize to Oishi-sempai about what _someone_ here said," the younger boy answered coolly, not once looking back at the other.

"Well, that was the only way I could think of to make him stop fussing over you," he replied making Echizen scowl. "You don't even know what I did."

They walked to Seigaku quietly, talking about normal things that somehow led to their rgument about what Fuji did to Oishi.

When they got to Seigaku, the club members were resting from their practice. Oishi was talking with Momoshiro and Kaidoh, seeming completely recovered from what Fuji had done.

"So Echizen, finally decided to come to practice huh?" Coach Ryuuzaki said, being the first one to notice their arrival, walking towards them. "How are you doing, kiddo?" she added, ruffling his hair.

"I'm fine," he said, a bit roughly, removing her hand off of his head. He searched for Oishi once again, finding him hiding behind Eiji, the color of his face fading away again.

The younger boy approached the former vice-captain immediately. "Oishi-sempai, whatever Fuji-sempai did to you, I'm sorry. He's just being weird again so," he cut himself off, not really knowing what to say – not even knowing what he was apologizing for. Relief washed over his features when he saw Oishi slowly nod.

Momo and Kaidoh stood there beside them, both confused as they watched the scene.

"Uhh," Momo started, scratching the back of his head. "What happened?"

"You don't have to know!" Echizen yelled, though he didn't really mean to.

Momo gaped at him, shocked that the boy just yelled at him after a long time of not doing so.

"This brat! How dare you treat me like this? Go get a racket and get in the court," Momo retorted, picking up his own tennis racket and started walking towards the court, swinging his right arm around to prepare himself.

Echizen opened his mouth to yell back but Fuji stepped in front of him, stopping him from saying something completely and called Momo back.

"Sorry, but Echizen is still in no position to play right now. Do you mind if I step in for him?" Fuji asked, unusually polite and a tad bit eerie.

Momo shook his head, apologizing though there was nothing to apologize for. Eiji jumped in front of him almost immediately and raised his hand, obviously in high spirits.

"Can I play? Can I play?" he asked, bouncing on his toes.

Fuji chuckled and nodded before stepping in front of Oishi and giving him a slight bow. "Sorry about earlier. Do you have a racket I can borrow?" he asked after he straightened himself up.

Oishi nodded before silently handing the racket to Fuji.

"Fuji-sempai! You still have to take me home, remember?" the raven-haired boy called, halting Fuji on his way to the tennis court.

Fuji smiled. He walked back to where Echizen was standing and placed his hand on the younger boys head, tousling his hair slightly. "We just got here, so what's the hurry? Besides, I'll win this game for you so you don't have to worry that much," he brought his hand back to his side before going back to the court, snickering to himself when he imagined Echizen's confused expression.

Echizen's mouth was left open, shaped in an 'o', and a tint of pink made its way to his cheeks. There were times when his hat became of good use other than to block the sun off of his eyes. This was one of those times, if only he didn't leave it at home.

Fuji was the first to serve, looking over where the younger boy was and giving him a small wave before actually doing so – causing Echizen's cheeks to turn redder than it already was. Lucky for him, no one seemed to notice – not even the brown-haired prodigy himself. He wasn't lucky enough though, for nothing escapes the 'mother' of Seigaku.

Oishi's eyes were immediately filled with worry. "Are you okay, Echizen? Your face is red! You don't have a fever do you?" Echizen's eyes went wide; he slowly backed away, trying hard to hide his face.

Hearing this, Fuji, who was running towards the net – ready to hit the ball back to Eiji's side of the court, stopped and took a peak at the raven-haired boy. It was one of his rare mistakes in the court. Eiji had taken that chance and hit his signature 'Kikumaru Beam' and scored a shot.

When Momo, who volunteered to be the umpire, shouted the score, everyone turned their heads to look at the scoreboard. Eiji, on the other hand, was happily shouting and jumping about.

"Mada mada dane, Fuji-sempai," he called with his famous smirk, his cheeks getting back their natural color.

"It's still too early for Eiji to win against me," his lips stretched into his slightly sadistic smile and he made his way back to the baseline to continue the game.

Everyone watched the two players in awe. Neither one of them wanted to lose, though they were clearly having fun hitting the ball back at each other in various ways that they thought would get the other slip up.

Echizen bit his lip, wishing that he was on the court opposite of Fuji's. He wished that he was, once again, feeling the thrill of facing Fuji like what Eiji was feeling now. If only his ankle wasn't injured and needed more time to recover.

He walked away, mumbling something about being thirsty before Oishi could even reply. Just as he left, the game had ended. It was Fuji's win, six games to two.

After shaking Eiji's hand and receiving an enormous hug from him, Fuji went to the bench where he received a spare towel from Eiji and a bottle of water from OIshi. He stood up after wiping his face of his perspiration and took a drink from the bottle. His eyes scanned through the club members that resumed their training and through the former regulars that were standing nearby. He stood up, checking the surrounding area and checking the faces of everyone there again. Echizen was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Echizen?" he asked, directing the question to no one in particular, suddenly worried. Fuji hurried into the clubroom, thinking that Echizen just wanted to step out of the heat and went inside for some shade. Still, the raven-haired boy was not there.

"He said he was thirsty," Oishi said once Fuji came out of the clubroom. "He's probably just by the water fountains or the vending machines inside the school. He's not going to leave you here, don't worry too much."

Just then, Oishi's phone rang. Everyone stared at Oishi, surprised by the sudden loud ringing. He struggled to take his phone out of his pocket, mumbling to himself how embarrassing he must look like and how he thought that he put his phone on silent.

"Hello?" Oishi greeted as soon as he flipped his phone open. Silence reigned over the tennis club. His face lit up when he found out who it was, only to turn serious after a few seconds. Oishi handed the phone over to Fuji who gladly accepted the call, albeit a little bit confused.

"It's Tezuka," Oishi explained in a hushed whisper and Fuji opened his mouth as if to say 'ahh' in return.

He placed the phone to his ear, unconsciously taking a deep breath while doing so. "Hello, Tezuka," Fuji greeted politely.

His smile dropped, however, when Tezuka asked him something unexpected. "What did you do to Echizen?"

* * *

**A/N: Okay~~ Here it goes~~ This is gonna take a while to finish… There are surely more than ten chapters…. Though I'm not sure how many chapters exactly… I hope you guys won't get tired of it~~ I'm sorry again for taking a long time before putting stuff up! Thanks for reading guys~~ Please look forward to the next chapters as well~~ **

**Blackxxcat013**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"What?" Fuji asked, his eyes opening in shock. He cleared his throat before asking again. "I mean, excuse me?"

"What did you do to Echizen?" Tezuka asked again.

"Nothing," Fuji answered, his eyes closed and he regained his composure.

"Then, what are you doing to him?"

"I'm not. How are you so sure that I'm doing something to him anyway? Why would I do something to him?"

"I have a feeling that you are. I'm warning you Fuji. If you do anything that will prevent or delay him from being Seigaku's pillar you won't be playing tennis again," Tezuka scolded.

Just then, Echizen came out from behind the clubroom. Fuji was still talking to the phone and was laughing whole-heartedly. Echizen narrowed his eyes at him, finding it strange for Fuji to laugh so much.

Oishi looked behind him, watching out to see if Echizen decided to come back. He was relieved to find the come around the corner and walk up next to him. He studied Echizen's face as he glared at Fuji, looking like he wanted to burn on the other's skin.

And then Oishi decided to tell him. "It's Tezuka," he whispered to Echizen, a little bit confused when the younger boy's glare became sharper.

Echizen grumbled as he walked away, planting himself on one of the benches directly outside the clubroom. Oishi had decided to leave him alone and the others didn't seem to notice. He was quite thankful for that, though he wasn't quite sure what his reason was to want to be left alone at the moment.

His hazel eyes wandered over to where Fuji was again, watching the older boy as he kept talking happily into the phone. 'Stupid sempai, doesn't even know that I'm here anymore,' he thought, standing up and contemplating whether he should just leave or not.

Fuji looked around then, scanning his surroundings and noticed Echizen standing alone by the bench. His smile immediately dropped and he hurriedly passed on the phone back to Oishi without saying a proper goodbye to Tezuka on the other line.

"Echizen, are you okay? Are you feeling sick? Is your ankle hurting again? Do you want to go home now?" he asked once he was by the younger boy's side, putting his right hand on the other's forehead and feeling for a fever.

Echizen pushed Fuji's hand away, groaning to himself and turning away from the older boy. "I'm fine! Geez, you're becoming more and more like Oishi-sempai."

"Do you want to talk to Tezuka? I'm sure he'd like to hear from you," Fuji answered, his head angling back to where Oishi was.

"No. It's okay. Can you – can you take me home now?" he let out a heavy sigh and his gaze fell to his feet. He was confused and his chest felt a bit heavy though he had no idea why. Getting home as soon as possible and laying his head on his pillows to get a nice amount of sleep sounded very appealing to him at the moment.

Fuji's smile had set itself back on his face, though it was filled with worry and a tinge of guilt. He lightened up a bit knowing that Echizen's injury didn't get any worse.

"Okay, wait here. I'm just going to tell them that we're leaving," Fuji said, jogging up to Eiji to say goodbye.

The walk home was really uneventful, if it weren't for Fuji talking to the raven-haired boy about his conversation with Tezuka. According to the brown-haired prodigy, Tezuka was simply concerned about the younger one's well being and accused Fuji of deteriorating his mental health. He didn't really care for Tezuka's concern for him; he could take care of himself. He closed his eyes for a bit and pinched the bridge of his nose. Everyone seems to treat him like a helpless little kid these days.

It took him longer than usual to get home and he wouldn't have realized that he was already at the front door, nor did he have someone walking with him, until Fuji poked him twice on his shoulder to bring him out of his stupor.

Echizen slowly opened the front door, muttering a quiet 'Bye' that was only audible to himself, and stepped inside.

"Echizen," he halted at the call of his name. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, sempai. Just… a little tired is all. Thanks for taking me to Seigaku. Bye," he answered before he unintentionally slammed the door close behind him.

Fuji's smile faded as he whispered a quiet 'Bye' in return, his hand up by his face intending to wave at the younger boy before the door closed. Before he actually stepped out the front gate, he looked back at the Echizen's house and his gaze fell at the small window located next to the door, hoping that Echizen would at least peak through that window to see him leave. Unfortunately, it seems like the younger boy had other things in mind.

Echizen had gone straight to his room and slumped on his bed, ignoring Nanako's calls of 'welcome home' and 'how was your walk?'. Nanako decided to follow him, taking a peak at what her cousin was doing. He was laying on his bed, his blanket thrown over him and his back facing the door. She could see the slight rise and fall of his ribcage and hear soft steady breathing from the boy. And though she knew very well that Echizen was just pretending to be asleep, she decided to leave the boy to himself for the rest of the afternoon.

Fuji, on the other hand, got home that day without his famous smile. Yumiko didn't really think anything of it when she saw her brother and even though she was worried, she left him to himself – in which Fuji was really thankful for.

For the rest of the afternoon, Fuji didn't say a word. He situated himself in a corner of the living room where he could look out the window with a book in his hands, though he was not paying attention to it.

Yumiko could not stand seeing her brother like this and interrogated him, in which he would answer that he's fine with a smile on his face. She knew very well that her brother wasn't fine and she wanted nothing more than to talk to him about it and ease his mind, but she trusted him and she knew that he would be able to solve whatever he was having problems with. To her, one thing was for certain. The problem isn't Yuuta.

* * *

**A/N: Hmmm….. This chapter seems shorter than the few previous ones… though the next one looks looooong….. I feel like I'm gonna die typing…. I'm pretty sure that my brain's just exaggerating though… Anyways~~~ how'd you guys like this one? I somehow feel like I've done something wrong…. Or maybe that's just me? Did I make Fuji too gloomy? **

**Anyways~~~ thanks for reading!~~ And reviewing~~ and fave-ing~~~ Karupin head shaped cookies to you all! XD**

**Blackxxcat013**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Fuji stirred in his bed. He couldn't sleep no matter how hard he tried. His mind wandered to memories of the day's events. He felt somewhat responsible for Echizen's sudden change in behavior. Breathing a long sigh, he rolled over and lay on his stomach, reaching for his phone on the bedside table.

'Nothing from Echizen…' he thought when he flipped the phone open, nearly smacking himself on the forehead when he realized that he never had the chance to exchange phone numbers with the younger boy.

Just to check if he, indeed, didn't have Echizen's number, he skimmed through his contact three times and groaned – rather uncharacteristically – in frustration. 'Have to get Eiji's first,' he thought, searching the list for Eiji's number and pressed the call button.

It took about five rings before Eiji answered.

"Hello?" Eiji asked his voice kind of weary and it was then that Fuji realized what time it was. It was ten minutes before one in the morning.

"Ah. Sorry, were you sleeping?" Fuji answered, feigning innocence and finding it much easier over the phone, and smiled.

"Yeah… Kind of… Did you need something? You could've asked me tomorrow, you know?"Eiji yawned.

"That's true but… I kinda really need it now," he pouted and mentally apologized to Eiji because, really, he could have gotten Echizen's number the next day in one way or another.

"What do you need anyway?" Eiji was starting to sound annoyed.

'That's not good,' Fuji thought and then proceeded to think if it really was such a good idea to ask the red-head. 'But then… Eiji has already answered the call.' "Do you have Echizen's number?" he finally asked.

"Eh?" Eiji answered, surprised, a little louder than he had intended earning a series of 'shh…s' from his siblings who slept in the same room. Eiji muttered a really quiet 'sorry' to his family before resuming his conversation with the brown-haired prodigy. "Umm… I think so. Hold on," Fuji heard a 'thump', probably from putting down the phone. And not long after were a series of 'thuds' and more 'shh…s' from his siblings.

"Okay… I got it…," Eiji whispered into the phone and Fuji could hear faint rustling sounds. 'Probably from holding the phone between his cheek and his shoulder,' he thought. "It's (xx) xxxx-xxxx. You better write it down."

"Thanks Eiji. I really appreciate it," Fuji answered after he had double checked the phone number that he wrote down.

"You better do! You just ruined my good dream!" Eiji raised his voice into the phone, loud enough to show his mock frustration but not loud enough to disturb his family.

Fuji chuckled. "Thanks again. See you tomorrow," he closed the phone and stared at the small piece of paper in his hand. He furrowed his eyebrows, debating within himself whether he should be inconsiderate towards the younger boy and just call him for his own selfish reasons or be the gentleman that he is and let the pretty boy have his sleep.

His fingers moved, albeit a little shakily, over his keypad and dialed Echizen's number. His finger hovered over the 'call' button and pressed it, the sound of ringing finally bringing him back to reality. He was about to press cancel when he heard that his call was answered, feeling a bit happy about it and a little bit relieved. Though, the happiness that he felt only lasted for a second when he realized that it was only Echizen's voice mail.

"It's me Fuji… Umm… I called to ask if you're really okay. Not that I don't believe you! But… still… Oh! Is it still alright if I visit? I won't if you don't want me to, don't worry. So… call back okay?" he said before immediately closing his phone, slightly flushed for reasons unknown to him. He felt relieved, however, as he felt the guilt in his chest ease up a bit.

'This way,' he thought. 'I can sleep in peace.' He placed his phone on his bed side table and smiled, hugging his pillow as he lay on his stomach, drifting off to sleep.

XXXOXXX

On the other hand, Echizen woke up at the sound of his ring tone. He groaned, thinking why someone would call him at such an ungodly hour. It couldn't be his father. He's pretty sure that he knew what the time difference is. And he'd call the home phone, not his cell phone.

He rolled in his bed, trying to ignore the incessant ringing of his cell phone. Frustrated, he grabbed his phone, intending to turn it off, at the exact same time the ringing ended, and a little icon was blinking at the corner of the screen, indicating that he had received a voice mail message.

He dialed his own number and waited for the message, ready to wring the neck of whoever was insane enough to wake him at one in the morning.

His eyes widened as he heard his sempai's voice, traces of sleepiness immediately vanishing from his system, and he listened carefully, not missing the words he had said. The message wasn't long but he found himself keeping the phone next to his ear even after it was over. His heartbeat started getting a little bit faster and, somehow, louder.

He put the phone back on his bedside table and rolled over, his back facing the table, and pulled the blankets over him. He told himself to sleep, thinking that the heavy feeling in his chest would go away if he did so, and decided that he will deal with Fuji the next day.

XXXOXXX

Fuji found himself to be awake an hour early than usual and he slightly wonders how he could be fully awake at the time even though he wasn't used to having only six hours of sleep or less. He shrugs it off, thinking that it didn't matter.

He immediately searched for his phone, opening it and surprising himself as he found himself disappointed when he saw that there was no reply from the younger boy.

He got up from his bed and slowly continued to do his morning routine. He kept telling himself to delay because it was, after all, still six in the morning. He went to the living room quietly so as not to disturb his family's sleep, though he was sure that they would wake up in a few more minutes.

Fuji had eaten his breakfast and had washed the plate and the utensils that he used. He had even changed into his casual outdoor clothes! And now that he had nothing to do, he sat on their living room couch and stared at the clock as its hand moved so agonizingly slow. But when the clock struck seven, he rushed out the front door without even waiting for his sister who usually drives him to Seigaku.

Moment's later, he found himself standing in front of the Echizen gate. Dumbfounded, he tried to remember how he even got to where he was. He was even more appalled to find the past few minutes to be a haze.

Fuji looked at what he hoped to be Echizen's window at the upper level of the exterior of the house and it took him minutes before he was able to tear his gaze away from it. He looked at his feet briefly and wriggled his toes before he slowly proceeded walking towards Seigaku.

'Seriously,' he thought. 'Something's wrong with me.'

* * *

**A/N: OMG! I made it in time!~ I promised lovexxxsweet that I'd post this up today… which means that I have until midnight to finish it and post it up~~~ SOOOO happy~~~ And I feel kind of silly… because of the times that I had a mobile phone… I have NEVER EVER used my voice mail… so I was kinda guessing while writing…. Was it obvious? Anyways~~~ How'd you like it? Any good? **

**Thanks for reading guys~~ I really appreciate it~~ It makes me really happy~~ So~ look forward to the next update~~ Tezuka head shaped cookies for you all~~~**

**Blackxxcat013**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

He drops his bag to the ground when he arrives at Seigaku and finds that the door to the clubroom is locked. There is no one, but him, present in the area. He sat on the bench outside the clubroom, pulling his bag to his side and not caring that it could rip by doing so, and rested his head on the wall where sleep consumed him.

Fuji hadn't realized that he had fallen asleep until Eiji woke him up, shaking him by the shoulders violently, and nearly hit his head against the wall. He squeezed his eyes shut as Eiji kept repeating his name over and over, not once letting go of his shoulders, and he decided that having his eyes closed wasn't the best idea.

"I'm awake. I'm awake. Thank you, Eiji," he said, peeling off the red-head's hands from his shoulders, and smiled.

"What? Did O'chibi kick you out?" the other joked, grinning.

"Nope," he answered, plainly. "I haven't seen him yet."

"Really? I didn't think that you'd come to practice today," Eiji teased.

"I've been visiting him so much; I just thought that he needed a little space."

"Aww. I wanted to see him again today," Eiji whined, his lips protruding and forming a pout.

Fuji chuckled at the statement. "We can probably see him again tomorrow," he said, standing up and walking over to the courts for Oishi had called the morning practice to a start.

The brown-haired teen sighed for the umpteenth time that day, putting his phone away when he found no reply from a certain black–haired prodigy. The morning practice went pretty fast that day, but Fuji felt that it took longer than it should have.

A few seconds after he put away his phone and changed into fresher and sweat-free clothes, he found himself looking into the same small wallpaper that showed from the tiny screen of his phone. The other members sensed the somewhat depressed aura that he radiated and, though they couldn't help but worry about him, they decided to leave him alone.

"Is something wrong Fuji?" Oishi asked finally, not being able to stand seeing Fuji so distracted. Unfortunately, Fuji didn't hear him. Neither did he notice Oishi standing right beside him until the other cleared his throat.

"Sorry. What were you saying?" Fuji asked, now avoiding the worried look Eiji was also sending him.

"I asked if you were okay," Oishi answered, calmly. "You've been looking at that phone a lot today."

"I'm fine, just a little bit sleepy. Yuuta called last night and he was talking so much, partially scolding me too. Though I don't exactly remember what he was scolding me for," Fuji answered with a smile. He had no choice but to lie. He would hear no end of Oishi's worries had he told him that he kind of got into a fight with Echizen and now the younger boy wouldn't answer his calls.

"We're always here if you need anything alright," Oishi answered, placing a hand on Fuji's shoulder and looking into his blue eyes. "Come talk to us if there's something troubling you. Don't keep it all bottled inside, it might eat you up one day."

Suddenly, he was tackled from behind and a pair of arms made their way over his shoulders. "Fuji! You have O'chibi's number right? Can we call him? Can we? Can we? I left my phone at home," Eiji said, jumping up and down while still hugging Fuji from behind.

Fuji chuckled and looked back at the phone in his hand. "Sure. Let's hope he picks up this time," he said, more to himself than anyone else, and searched for Echizen's number from his contact list.

'At least now I have a reason to call…' he thought, taking a deep breath and placing the phone next to his ear. He wasn't really sure why he was so nervous, it was just a phone call after all.

After a set of rings, it went to Echizen's voice mail and Fuji couldn't help but feel disappointed that the younger boy didn't pick up his phone, again.

"Echizen! It's me again. Umm… I'm sorry for bothering you but Eiji really wanted to talk to you and he doesn't have his phone now so –" Eiji couldn't wait any longer. He snatched the phone away from Fuji and dashed to a corner of the clubroom.

"O'chibi! How are you? Are you having fun? You should hurry up and get better soon, you know! Fuji's getting glummer by the minute! Oishi says hi! Get well soon okay!" he said merrily, not really thinking before chattering away. He flipped the phone closed not bothering to think if Fuji still had anything to say, though he was convinced that the other didn't have any.

Eiji turned around to Fuji's blank face and Oishi's face of horror, guilt slightly seeping into him and his confidence melting away. He handed the phone in his now shaky hands over to Fuji and quickly went to hide behind Oishi, expecting a sweet sounding threat that would send chills down his spine from the brown-haired prodigy.

Fuji only sighed and Eiji breathed out in relief, slowly moving to Oishi's side. Fuji stared at his phone for a while before he placed it in his pocket. He gathered all his things and turned to face Oishi and Eiji with a small, though a small one, and said good bye, checking his phone once again before finally stepping out of the clubroom and out of sight.

XXXOXXX

Echizen had been left alone that day. Nanako had gone out to do some grocery shopping and Karupin, though he was with him, had been sleeping all day. Echizen would have been sleeping too, if it weren't for the constant calls he kept getting.

He had gotten a headache from hearing allthe rings that came from his phone. Turning it to silent didn't do any good either. Its vibrations were louder than Karupin's mewls. And when he decided to turn the phone off, it was already too late.

There was a call from his mom the night before, asking how he was and saying that she directly called his cell phone so that it was faster (though she didn't know that there was a higher chance of her son not answering her call). There was, of course, one from Fuji very early in the morning and waking him up at some time after midnight. And in the middle of another sweet dream, he was awakened by yet another call from Fuji. He tried going to sleep again after, only to find out that it was nearly eleven in the morning and that he couldn't go to sleep anymore. The rest of the few dozen calls that he received after were from Eiji.

Karupin was jolted awake by the sudden loud ring of the first of Eiji's calls. The poor cat won't even come into his room anymore after. Echizen felt slightly betrayed by the act. He looked over at his bed then and his eyes hovered over to where the plushie he had received was. He stared at it and patted its head before placing it beside him with a sigh.

"Being injured sucks!" he exclaimed, stretching his arms out and falling back on his bed.

He stared at the ceiling, thinking back to what Nanako had told him that morning. "You can take the bandages off tomorrow morning if you want to," she had said, a smile on her features, before her face turned serious and her eyes narrowed at him. "But no tennis until the doctor gives you the okay when we get it checked two days from now." He frowned at the statement but he had no other choice.

Echizen stood up and took a tennis ball out of his desk drawer and went to lie back down on his bed. He tossed the ball up in the air and caught it with one hand. He stopped after a while, his arm falling to his side and his free hand (his left hand) reaching up, as if wanting to touch the ceiling, closing it and opening it again.

He held the tennis ball in his left hand and brought it a little close to his face. Tennis is his life and it was the only thing that mattered to him. But now, right at this moment, all he could think of was 'Fuji-sempai'.

* * *

**A/N: This one is realllly short… I think… and I'm wondering if I should just put it up as chapter 8.5 instead of chapter 9… and… I don't really know what to do… I'm just going to leave it as chapter 9 anyway…. And probably be complaining a lot after….There was really nothing to do today so I decided to work on this~ Good for you guys huh~ What do you guys think? **

**Thanks for reading guys~~ and reviewing too~~ and fave-ing~~ look forward to the next chapter~~ umm… whose head should I sacrifice next? Ummmm.. ah I got it~ INUI HEAD-SHAPED COOKIES FOR YOU ALL~~~ don't worry it's not contaminated by his juice~ I promise! Thanks very much guys~~**

**Blackxxcat013**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Echizen moved his ankle, carefully, in a circular motion. He was used to having the bandage stuck on his foot and felt a little awkward having it off.

He stared at his phone and thought of the day before, not about Eiji's non-stop calls, not about Nanako barging into his room and yelling at him for not picking up the phone when she called six times and not about the headache he got from the constant ringing but at Fuji's calls from the day before and the night before that.

He thought about calling the older boy back but decided against it after convincing himself that he had nothing to say to the other anyway so calling him back would be pointless and a waste of money. A tinge of guilt managed to seep into his nerves.

He took the phone from the bed-side table and flipped it open. Going to the phone's call list and stopping over Fuji's call details, his thumb hovered hesitantly over the call button, still not deciding whether or not he should just call the older boy and get things over with.

Realizing what he was doing, he hastily put the phone back on the bed-side table and laid down on his bed, pulling his blanket over himself. He rolled around and faced the wall. He tried his hardest to go back to sleep, since there was nothing for him to do – there was nothing to watch and nothing for him to read – but something at the back of his mind told him not to.

A few minutes later, his phone rang loudly.

Thinking back to earlier that morning, Nanako told him to leave his phone on and off silent because she would sure call to check up on him. She had gone out with some of her friends and said that she won't take that long.

"This is stupid. Who leaves an injured person to go out shopping and disturb that injured person's rest time when they're gone?" he mumbled to himself.

Before the call went into voice mail, he grabbed the phone and answered the call, irritated, not bothering to see who the caller was.

"There! I answered! Happy now?" he yelled into the phone.

There was a chuckle from the other end and Echizen's irritation dropped, suddenly feeling nervous. He wasn't really ready to talk to him.

"Fuji-sempai, I-I'm sorry. I thought you were Nanako-san and…" he said, not being able to find the words he thought were just right to explain the situation, slightly embarrassed.

"Hm? Is Nanako-san not there? Are you alone? Do you want me to come? I have to give you something anyway." Echizen could just see the smile on his sempai's face.

"I guess… Are you coming now?"

The doorbell rang.

The raven-haired boy looked at his door, not really wanting to leave his place from his bed but having no other choice. He went downstairs lethargically; giving no thought of who the person was that rang the doorbell. He opened the door and a familiar smile came into view.

"I'm here," Fuji said into the phone, raising the plastic bag he was holding in his other hand and slightly waving to the younger one.

Echizen moved aside to let Fuji in, closing his phone in the process and putting it in his pocket. "That was fast," he said, seeing that Fuji had already taken off his shoes.

"Yeah, well I was walking outside your house when I called," Fuji looked at Echizen and saw him narrowing his eyes at him. "I know. I should have called earlier."

Echizen started walking towards the living room and Fuji's eyes drifted from his back to his ankle. "You took the bandages off. Can you play now?"

"No, not until I get the okay from the doctor. I just took it off this morning," Echizen sat down beside Karupin on the sofa, who had been sleeping there for most of the afternoon. The cat woke up, annoyed, and left its master's lap. Echizen groaned.

Fuji chuckled at him. "Karupin's in a bad mood huh?"

"He hates me," the younger boy glared at the other. "It's your fault! If you didn't – no wait. Not you, never mind," Echizen looked away and Fuji couldn't help but be curious. "After your call yesterday, Eiji-sempai called me over and over again. And… now Karupin hates me…"

Fuji chuckled again and Echizen glared at him again. "It's not funny!"

"Sure it isn't," the older of the two reached over the arm of the sofa, taking the plastic bag he was holding earlier, and passing it to the other.

"What's this?" the younger boy asked, taking a peek in the plastic.

"Soup. My sister wanted me to give it to you. She cooked it herself," he smiled at him, obviously proud of his sister's cooking.

"Why?"

"She knows that you're injured."

Echizen looked back into the bag and raised an eyebrow. 'Soup for an injury?' he thought. "How?"

"I told her."

"Why?"

"She found out that I lied the other day when I came over."

Echizen's cheeks turned into a light shade of pink, not being used to being taken care of by other people. "Tell her that I said thanks then," he said sheepishly, taking a sudden interest on his feet.

The room was filled with silence before Fuji decided to speak up. "No more questions for me huh?"

The raven-haired boy looked at him. "Is there anything else to ask?"

"I don't know. Is there something that you want to ask?" he answered, not really understanding the new conversation he had just started.

The other looked down again and his eyebrows furrowed, though as if he was thinking deeply.

"Then… What's going on at Seigaku?" he brought his eyes to meet Fuji's. He didn't really know what to ask. 'Is today his birthday or something?' he thought, though he was sure that it isn't.

"Nothing much," Fuji replied. "There's the usual bickering between Momo and Kaidoh. Eiji's still whining about you," he smiled, holding himself back from what he wanted to add. He had thought of saying 'It's quite boring without you actually,' but he was sure that it would bring them another round of awkward silence, so he decided not to. Besides, some things are better left unsaid.

Echizen laughed slightly, making Fuji laugh as well.

The younger boy stood up suddenly, confusing the older male.

"Are you hungry? Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Echizen asked.

Fuji smiled again and answered, "How kind of you Echizen-kun, but no thank you. I'm fine," his smile only grew wider when Echizen scowled, most likely at the suffix used on him.

The front door opened suddenly, surprising the two people in the living room though they both didn't show it, revealing an exhausted Nanako who collapsed on the floor. The two boys looked at each other before looking back at her.

"You didn't… answer… my call," Nanako said in between breaths.

"You called? I didn't get any," he took the phone out of his pocket, flipping it open and finding a dark, blank screen. "Oh…"

All eyes were on him.

"It's dead," Echizen waved the phone in front of him and Nanako collapsed even more. Fuji couldn't help but giggle at the exchange.

"Well, it looks like my time here is up," he stood up, drawing the eyes of the two other occupants of the room to him.

"Eh?" Echizen looked at Fuji, not finding anything to say in response. He didn't want Fuji to leave yet though he didn't want to admit it, not even to himself.

Fuji made his way to the front door, pausing in front of Nanako to give her a small bow before he left, with Echizen behind him.

"I'll come back again tomorrow," Fuji paused after putting on his shoes. "If that's okay with you… Or maybe you want to visit Seigaku again?"

Echizen nodded in return, quietly following Fuji to the front gate and waving goodbye at him.

Nanako watched, still at her spot by the doorway, as her cousin slowly trudged to his room, paying her no attention and seeming to have forgotten that she was still there.

'Something had changed,' she thought. She just didn't know what it was.

XXXOXXX

The next day went as planned. He went to Echizen's house early, wanting to surprise the boy again, to him to accompany him to Seigaku and found the boy all-dressed up and ready to go on the living room sofa. Karupin was on his lap, lying peacefully while watching television with his master.

They spent all day together, Fuji dragging Echizen everywhere he went so as not to let the incident from the other day happen again. And though Echizen grumbled, he let himself be dragged around anyway.

XXXOXXX

On the day after that, Fuji visited Echizen again, knowing that on that day, the younger boy would go to the doctor and get a check-up.

The younger boy opened the door and went back inside to the living room, not saying even a greeting to the older boy though Fuji knew that his presence was acknowledged.

Shortly after, they went to the hospital. The hint of excitement slightly showed on Echizen's face and it made Fuji laugh to himself.

The check-up was brief and he was given the 'okay'. The raven-haired boy couldn't be happier. He was finally free!

Nanako had left saying that she needed to clean up at home, though she had just cleaned the whole place some few days ago, and left Fuji and Echizen alone on their way to Seigaku.

Fuji chuckled at the younger boy's excitement. It was an interesting sight to see, for the other didn't usually show this side of him to others. "I wonder if the others would give you a handicap."

"I don't need it," was Echizen's cocky reply. He smirked to himself when he saw one of Fuji's eyebrows raised thought the brown-haired boy was still smiling. He replied the smile with his own, content with the silence that fell upon them. 'Everything's going to be fine,' he thought. But, there was a part of him that told him that something big was going to happen.

* * *

**A/N: OOOOh~~ What's going to happen now?~ Haaah…. I didn't have a due date for this one… Lovexxxsweet wasn't with me to give me one T^T Where are you? Yeah… for someone reason… I actually work much better with a due date~~ I guess it's the fear of having 5% off~~ **

**Anyways~~ Here's the tenth chapter~~ and I'm so happy that you guys are still following~~ though before I finished this I looked at my rough for this story - Cause for some reason I can't work without a draft for written stuff – and this story has 21 chapters at most! Is that okay with you guys? Reading through it, I couldn't really find any unnecessary stuff in the story so…. I hope you stick with me until then…. **

**Thankyou for reading this chapter~~~ Thanks for the reviews and the favourites again~~ I'll have the next chapter up soon I hope~ Thanks again~~~**

**Hmmm… I'd sacrifice that Mizuki guy and that duck guy of St. Rudolph but…. I don't really like them and I don't think they would deserve being sacrificed… so blushing Kaidoh head shaped cookies for you all~~ cause I think Kaidoh's cute that way~~ Enjoy!**

**I feel like I made a lot of mistakes on this chapter~~ Please tell me if there are any~ Thanks again!~**

**Blackxxcat013**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

They reached Seigaku fairly quickly. The others greeted them happily, Eiji smothering Echizen with hugs and everyone else surrounding them.

Fuji immediately borrowed a racket and handed it to Echizen, who smirked and challenged anyone who was willing to for a game.

Momo volunteered first, claiming that he had not been able to 'pound the brat to bits' since the injury. They had agreed that they would just play one game so that they wouldn't take that long to finish. But after around five minutes have passed, Momo was lying on the ground, breathing heavily as he laughed.

Echizen had won, flashing his famous smirk.

"That was for the other day," he said, making his way to the benches. Momo followed closely behind him.

"Eh?" Momo asked, clearly confused. "What other day?"

They both received a towel from Oishi, thanking him, before sitting on the bench and wiping their sweat.

Fuji held a can in his hand, newly bought from the nearby vending machine. He sneaked up behind Echizen and held the cold can agains the younger boy's cheek, earning a yelp from the other.

Echizen turned around, intending to murder the culprit on the spot, and groaned when he saw who it was.

Fuji chuckled, proud of what he accomplished. He gave the can of grape Ponta to the younger boy, who hesitated but accepted the drink. He muttered a silent 'thank you' that Fuji nearly didn't hear, before opening the can and taking a sip of the drink. And Fuji watched as the other gulp down the content of the can.

Echizen felt Fuji's stare on him and raised a brow. "Is there something on my face?" He brought a hand to his face, feeling for anything irregular and wiping his cheek though he couldn't really tell if there was any dirt on his face.

Fuji snapped out of his daze, slightly tensing, and smiled widely at the boy, he was not really sure what to do after he was caught staring and not being able to come up with an immediate excuse for doing so. "Ah. Nothing, sorry," he answered, though not satisfied with himself because he felt like he had just admitted that he had been staring at the younger boy for the past few minutes. "Are you ready for another go?" he added, tilting his head towards the court.

Echizen smirked, his eyes were practically glowing fro excitement. He picked up the racket he was using earlier, silently accepting the challenge, and made his way to the court.

Fuji tossed a few tennis balls to Echizen over the net, indicating that they didn't have to spin the racket to see who would go first.

Echizen gladly accepted the offer, hi smirk becoming even wider. He held the racket in his left hand, his right bouncing the ball on the ground.

He tossed the ball in the air and jumped, hitting the ball with his 'Twist Serve', and landed back on the ground with a grin. His eyes were locked on Fuji and how he was going to hit the ball back while he ran to the middle of his side of the court.

Fuji ran towards the ball, bringing his arm back, and prepared to hit it.

In the midst of all that, he appeared behind them, successfully surprising Fuji and throwing him off his game.

Fuji's eyes flew open and his jaw dropped, stopping in his steps. He wasn't expecting him to be there, hitting the ball thoughtlessly and recklessly.

The ball was hit with a force not too weak and not too strong. The aiming was a bit off, sending it flying to Echizen's face. It would have hit the boy too, if it weren't for his fast reflexes. His cap got tipped over instead.

The freshman groaned and picked up his cap, dusting it off at the side of his shorts. He placed his cap back on his head, muttering to himself about how the ball could've given him another injury but no one seemed to care.

He looked at Fuji first, raising an eyebrow at the older boy's expression, before turning around to pick up the ball that they were using.

"What's your –"he faced Fuji again. The older boy had dropped the racket he was using and he was staring right at his direction as if he saw a ghost. He looked around, but not behind him, to find that the others had the same expressions on their faces.

"Echizen," came the greeting from behind him.

The boy's eyes went wide in surprise. That voice only belonged to one person and it was hard to miss. He turned around, finally, and lifted his head up to face the visitor. "Tezuka-buchou."

Everyone else started moving again, like waking up from a dream, and raced each other to reach the former captain.

Echizen frowned as Fuji passed him, smile reaching his ears.

He stood alone in the court and watched as most of his upperclassmen chattered happily in Tezuka's face and welcomed him back. He would've done that too in his own way. But seeing how close Fuji was standing to Tezuka simply turned his mood sour. His chest felt slightly heavy and he stared at the ground. 'It wasn't fair.'

* * *

**A/N:** **Sorry this is such a short chapter…. And it took me sooo long too…. I was distracted and I was in a typing block? If there is such a thing… I simply wasn't in the mood to type it for some reason… and then I got caught up in writing something else… it would be harder for me to post things up too since school is gonna start again next weak… But I'll finish this don't worry! There are… ten chapters left to do after all~~ and a sequel (hint hint) and hmmm…. That's all for now…. I'm gonna work on the next one soon… Forgive me~~~ **

**And thanks for reading! I give everyone my heart!~~ Or would you want cookies instead? Please look forward to the next one~~**

**Blackxxcat013**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Echizen sighed. He grabbed the forgotten racket on the other side of the court and walked to the back of the group that had gathered around the former captain.

Coach Ryuzaki came out of the school building after claiming to have finished the paper work for the club that she had left undone for a few days already. Spotting Echizen standing alone away from the small crowd, she walked towards him.

"Come on, now. Don't be so glum kid. Go join them over there," she said, patting Echizen's back.

"Hmph. I don't do welcome home parties," he answered, slightly annoyed.

"What? Unless you're the one being welcomed home?" the boy raised an eyebrow at her. "At least greet him," the coach gave him another pat on the back and slightly pushed him towards the crowd. Echizen rolled his eyes.

"Sure. Maybe after everyone's done fanboying over him," he mumbled to himself, not quite sure what would have happened if the coach had heard what he said. And at that moment, everyone stepped away from Tezuka, giving him enough space to walk closer to Echizen.

"Echizen. I heard you were injured," the former captain said, his face as stoic as usual.

"I'm okay now," he answered, slightly moving his ankle for emphasis. " I was just going to have a match with Fuji-sempai, if you hadn't come and disturbed us," he added, yet again mumbling the last part to himself.

A heavy tension suddenly filled the air. And it was harder to breathe for everyone.

"Let's celebrate!" Eiji exclaimed, effectively breaking the silence.

Everyone immediately gave a sound of agreement.

"Let's go to the shop. I'll tell my dad to reserve the whole place for us," Taka suggested with a smile.

"For Tezuka's comeback!" Eiji yelled, pumping a fist in the air. Everyone cheered, not noticing the dark expression on Echizen's features.

"Just go with them. You're going to have fun. Or else you won't be allowed to hold a racket for another month," Coach Ryuzaki warned and walked away with the rest of the group. The younger boy groaned again.

Echizen felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to see who it was, finding himself face to face with a smiling face,

"Guess our rematch still has to wait," Fuji said. "Let's go. You wouldn't want the others to wait for us," he added, dragging Echizen by the arm and following the others.

XXXOXXX

At the Kawamura sushi shop, Oishi, Inui and Tezuka were sitting at the bar, Oishi was talking to the former captain so fast that he wasn't really sure what he was talking about anymore. Coach Ryuuzaki sat at the bar too, talking to Taka's father about their jobs.

The others shared a table on the other side of the room and Taka had his work clothes on and busied himself in making the sushi with his father.

Echizen eyed the tray of sushi placed right in front of him. This was one of those rare occasions that he didn't feel like eating and that the sight of so much food made him a bit queasy. And seeing how Momo and Eiji just kept swallowing everything didn't help make anything better.

"Are you alright, Echizen?" he turned to see his sempai's worried face. "You look kind of pale."

"I'm fine, Fuji-sempai," he answered, looking away. 'I've been saying that line a lot recently,' he thought, finally wondering if anyone really trust him enough to know about his health or not.

"But you haven't even touched any of the sushi yet," Fuji said again, his voice coming out louder than he had intended.

The shop suddenly turned quiet.

Echizen could feel his cheeks flush and he became aware of everyone's stares. He picked up a random piece of sushi, checking it twice and making sure that no one had put anything weird in it before popping it into his mouth.

Everyone else went back to what they were doing before, everyone except for Taka, Fuji and Echizen himself.

Taka stared at Echizen nervously, afraid that the little guy didn't like the sushi that he worked so hard to make. Fuji was just worried. Oishi was really getting to him.

"E-echizen…" the two said at the same time.

"Okay people! We've troubled the Kawamura family a lot already. Time to head home," their coach said loudly, making sure that everyone in the room heard. She turned to Taka's father and thanked him again.

Everyone stood up and got themselves ready, saying their thanks and bowing to their hosts before leaving the shop.

"Let's take you home, Echizen," Fuji said earning a shrug from the younger boy who started walking away.

"Fuji," the two boys stopped walking and turned around to see who had called the brown-haired prodigy.

"Tezuka," Fuji replied politely.

"I need to talk to you."

Fuji looked at Echizen, who was staring intently at the tallest of the three of them – his eyebrows creasing slightly in the middle, and then at Tezuka. "I have to send Echizen back home."

Echizen smirked to himself. 'Yeah, buchou. First come, first serve,' he had thought.

Tezuka raised an eyebrow, his gaze going from Fuji to the younger boy beside him. "I see. Well, be sure to come to practice on time tomorrow," he replied, the last statement directed towards the younger boy, before turning around and walking away.

"W-wait!" Fuji suddenly yelled, unconsciously stepping forward.

Tezuka stopped walking and turned around. Echizen's jaw dropped, surprised that Fuji actually chose the older boy over him.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Echizen," Fuji waved, smiling innocently.

Echizen's eyes widened, watching Fuji walking away with Tezuka, and he groaned. 'So unfair,' he thought, his hand automatically closing into a fist.

* * *

**A/N: Ahhhh…. School starts the day after tomorrow… so it would be harder for me to update…. There's nine chapters left~ Please be patient…. I'll see what I can do… I'll probably put up one chapter every week… If I can… TT^TT… I'm sorry about these recent chapters… This was like my blank phase…It'll get better… I think…**

**Thanks for reading~~ And uhh.. review maybe?**

**Blackxxcat013**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Echizen didn't get that much sleep the night before. Karupin seemed to sense his distress and started walking on top of him, hoping to cheer up his master, which only kept the boy up even more. Adding the events from earlier that day only worsened his mood.

He woke up two hours before his usual wake up time, grumpily getting ready and cursing at the things that he bumps into or trip on while walking in his dark.

The first thing he got once he arrived at Seigaku was a short but stern scolding from Tezuka. Though he did wake up early that day, he proceeded to take his time on everything he did as much as possible. He wasn't listening to what Tezuka was saying, he felt that there was no need to, and let the older boy's words pass out his other ear. Soon after, Tezuka assigned Echizen some laps and the exercises that the others had done before he had arrived.

Echizen sat on one of the benches once he was done, head lowered and gaze steadied to the ground. He wasn't tired, far from it really. He was just not in the mood for anything at the moment.

Once he lifted his head, Echizen saw Inui talking to the club, a whiteboard beside him with small scribbles that Echizen couldn't really see from the distance that was between them. It only took a few minutes before Inui returned his stare and seconds before the whole club stared right back at him, forcing him to get up and join them.

Apparently, they were to practice in groups of three and they were free to choose who would be in the group.

Without even waiting for the signal, Eiji had already dragged both Momo and Echizen with him to the nearest court. Oishi and Fuji stuck with Tezuka and Taka, Inui and Kaidoh grouped together.

Eiji decided to draw lots, whoever loses stays out until the match is over. Momo gaped at the small stick in his hand. He had lost, lazily dragging his feet to the umpire's chair while the other two got ready.

Eiji served, missing the ball the first time and taking a really long time before serving on the second.

"You're getting rusty, Eiji-sempai!" Echizen yelled from across the court, tapping his feet in annoyance.

"Be patient, O'chibi! You'll get wrinkles like that!" Eiji yelled back, tossing the ball and finally hitting it.

Echizen returned the ball with all his might, wanting to let at least some of his frustration seep through his system. His eyes would occasionally peak at the group in the adjacent court, eyeing one specific person and watching as the other moved gracefully around the court and how the other executed his strikes perfectly.

Eiji returned Echizen's attack, snickering when he saw that the younger boy wasn't paying attention. Unfortunately, he underestimated the other.

The freshman moved once his ear picked up the sound of the ball bouncing into his part of the court, hitting it with the same strength he used earlier and not looking while doing so.

A 'thud' was heard, followed by the sound of the ball hitting the railings at the very back of the court.

Eiji sat on the ground, head tilted to where the ball rested. "O'chibi! You didn't have to hit it that hard!"

"Hmph. Mada mada dane," he answered, shifting his weight on his left foot and turning away.

"Hey! You weren't paying attention either!" the older one yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Echizen. "You were busy watching Fuji play that you… you… you..." Eiji tried to defend himself and failed to do so, not finding words that would –hopefully- embarrass or slightly offend the younger boy. Echizen, on the other hand, stiffened at the mention of Fuji's name.

"Well, that's expected. Anyone would watch their rivals especially when you want to beat them," he reasoned, hoping that it sounded reasonable enough for the red headed senior to leave him alone. He sent Fuji a glare, which the older one just ignored and went back to serving the ball to Tezuka.

Oishi was beside Eiji in a flash, dragging him to a bench and asking if he suffered any injuries.

Momo took the chance immediately and stood opposite of Echizen. He held his racket with his right hand and tapped his shoulder with it. "Oi, Echizen! Try me! Give me all you've got!" he yelled.

Echizen bent his knees into his serving stance and tossed the ball into the air. He hit the ball with all his might, smirking while doing so, and sent Momo one of his famous Twist Serves.

Momo ran towards the ball, bringing his arm back in order to return the shot and finding the right momentum to do so. He hit the ball, putting most of his strength on the strike and answering the younger boy's power with his own, and smirked to himself because he knew that the point would undoubtedly be his.

Silence followed. Momo's racket flew out of his hand and skidded on the ground. And his eyes widened, thinking it to be a miracle that his racket didn't break or that he didn't have any injuries.

It took a moment before everyone else turned back to whatever they were doing, another moment before Momo came back to his senses.

"OI! What was that for?" the spiky-haired teen yelled, raising an arm in slight anger. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Echizen shrugged, taking a spare tennis ball from his pocket and started hitting in on the side of his racket.

"Echizen, are you okay? You seem a bit out of it," Fuji asked, suddenly appearing beside the young boy, with a frown on his face instead of his usual smile.

This caused the raven-haired boy to miss the ball and, due to his reflexes, hit the ball towards the entrance of the court, nearly hitting the person standing there.

The place was filled with silence once again. Tezuka lowered his hand from in front of his eyes and glared at the younger boy, who answered with his own intense glare.

"Echizen," he called, slowly moving forward. "30 laps or I will make sure that you will never be able to play tennis again," he continued, keeping his calm.

The younger boy groaned, he rolled his eyes and glared back at the former captain. It took a while before he moved. And everyone sighed in relief when he did, not even realizing that they were holding back their breath.

Echizen placed his racket down on a bench and went out of the court, walking. And after a while, he started jogging, thinking if he should quicken the pace. He shrugged it off soon after, opting to just take his time.

Almost everyone else sighed once he started jogging, not even realizing that they were keeping in their breath. Who knew what would have happened if Echizen didn't move?

=OAO=

It was already late afternoon and Tezuka called everyone into the clubroom. The club members did so and quickly tidied the courts before going to the clubroom and scurrying out to leave.

It was on the start of his last lap when it started to drizzle and when Tezuka told him to stop.

He saw Fuji give the former captain a disapproving look which Tezuka just disregarded as he walked towards the brown-haired prodigy. He watched as they disappeared together into the clubroom, following shortly after as the drizzle slowly turned into rain.

Echizen watched the pair intently, angrily as Fuji happily chattered away – oblivious of what was happening around him – and Tezuka who only listened while changing. Their backs both faced him.

He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings either. He was only dragged back into reality when Momo suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a headlock.

"Are you listening, brat?" Momo yelled.

"Be quiet! I actually use my ears! Now, let go," he replied, wriggling out of Momo's hold.

"Well?" Eiji asked, nearly bouncing. "Are you coming?"

"Coming? Where to?" the raven-haired boy replied, confused.

"To the burger joint. Eiji sempai's paying," Momo answered with a huge grin.

"EH?" Eiji exclaimed. "No one told me about that!"

"Whatever," the younger boy said, standing up to change and started packing his stuff.

"Eh?" Eiji and Momo shouted in unison, causing everyone in the room to look at them.

"What?" the youngest one amongst the three of them asked, starting to lose his patience.

"What do you mean whatever?" Momo said in a whisper, wanting to avoid attracting more eyes into their conversation yet by doing so made their conversation seem much more suspicious.

The younger one let out a sigh, bringing an arm up to massage his temples. "I'm just tired, sempai. And I don't really want burgers right now."

"Oh…" Momo answered, scratching the back of his head. "Maybe next time then."

Eiji looked between at the both of them, finding it quite unbelievable that the boy would deny the offer of free burgers.

Echizen suddenly felt a hand on his hand and he tried to shove it away, only to have the intruder ruffle his hair.

"Tired huh? How about we all go together next time, ok?" Fuji said, deciding to suddenly join the conversation. He turned to face the raven-haired boy. "Want me to take you home?" he asked, frowning when the other shook his head. "Come on. I haven't been to your house for a while. I want to tell you something too."

Echizen turned his face towards Fuji and stared at him, causing Fuji's smile to widen knowing that the younger had just accepted his offer. "Wait outside. The rain's gone. I'll just go get my things ready," he said before walking away.

He took his stuff and walked out of the classroom, not saying a word towards Eiji and Momo who were arguing about burgers and patiently waited for the brown-haired boy.

It took the other fifteen minutes to finally appear again. "I'm sorry I took so long," he said, to which the younger boy replied with a shrug and started walking away slowly. "Oh, and Tezuka's coming with us."

Echizen halted, spinning around and looked back at Fuji, who was smiling oh-so-innocently and Tezuka who appeared behind him, feeling quite betrayed and flabbergasted at the sudden turn of events.

"Just until the station," Fuji continued, earning a groan from the younger boy and started walking.

==^W^==

It had started with the youngest of the three walking in front of the other two. And somehow, between walking from Seigaku to the station, he ended up behind them. He glared at them as they talked about God-knows-what, hoping that maybe Tezuka's shoelaces would come undone and the former captain would trip on them.

Several steps later, he thought of pushing them apart, just to get them away from each other, but that would've been weird. He quickly shook off the idea and pushed away any other thoughts of pushing the two people in front of him apart into the farthest corner of his mind.

All of a sudden, the two in front of him stopped. Fortunately, the younger boy stopped just in time before bumping into Fuji and looked around. 'Oh, it's the station,' he thought.

He walked a few more steps ahead of them before stopping and turning back to look at them.

The other two started saying good-bye to each other only to end up talking about other things and Echizen started stomping his feet impatiently, at the same time wondering how long it actually takes just to say good-bye.

"I'm going now," the raven-haired boy said while readjusting his bag on his shoulder and started walking to his house.

"Ah! Echizen! Wait up!" Fuji called once he realized that other boy was walking away. He waved good-bye to the older man in front of him and ran to catch up to Echizen. "You walk fast sometimes," he joked, earning a groan from the younger boy.

===OAO===

It was a quiet walk from the station to Echizen's home, both too deep into their own thoughts to notice that they had already arrived.

"Graduation is in two weeks," Fuji started, breaking the silence between them. "Are you coming?"

"Probably…not. Who knows," Echizen answered, turning to look at the older boy before opening the front door. "Do you want to come in?" he asked, turning to look at Fuji.

"No, thank you," Fuji smiled and Echizen focused on staring at his feet. "Practice starts a week before the actual thing," he continued. "We won't be able to hang out as much as before."

'Not like we've been hanging out a lot lately. You still have Tezuka anyway,' the younger boy thought, careful to keep his mouth shut before he started spouting anything embarrassing.

"I know!" Fuji exclaimed, making the other look at him. "Do you want to watch a movie on the weekend? To make up for the time we won't see each other," he asked, face brightening.

"I don't know," the older boy faked a pout. "We'll see. I'll tell you tomorrow," he answered, not really sure what to be feeling at the moment.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow," Fuji said before ruffling the raven-haired boy's hair and walking away.

Echizen didn't go inside the house until he was sure that Fuji was out of sight. He went to his room and lied on his bed, feeling a little bit nervous after the previous conversation. He slowly took the Karupin plushie from his bed side table and stared at it, thinking, 'What to do…?'

And then, he paused, loosening his grip on the plushie and letting it fall on the bed. 'I'm acting like a girl…'

* * *

**A/N: okay… this one's finally up! I'm sorry if I took so long… I just got really busy with school work… I got home work everyday… and I couldn't really find the time to type this… Umm… I think that was a weird line to be ending this chapter with… but oh well… I don't think I'll be able to post up the next chapter anytime soon but I'll try my best…. I might have lost a number of readers of this fic… but to those who are still here… Thank you very much and please do be patient with me~~ **

**So… reviews? There's around… six more chapters to go until the end of this one… so I hope you guys like it~~ Thanks again…**

**Blackxxcat013**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The weekend came by faster than he expected. Echizen had accepted the offer to Fuji's invitation the day after the older boy invited him.

The day after he accepted the offer, they had been planning on what movie to watch on the way to the younger boy's home. Echizen was quite excited and he noted that Fuji was practically glowing with happiness.

And yet, now, outside the movie theatre, an hour after their supposed meeting, the brown-haired prodigy was nowhere to be found. There had been no calls from him either, so Echizen could only stand there, searching through his surroundings in case his sly upperclassman was just playing pranks on him. He was dressed in the white collared shirt that he usually wore, albeit not with his hat.

The raven-haired boy wasn't sure if he should be angry or not.

He checked his phone for the hundreth time that day, making sure that the phone wasn't dead and making sure that his settings were alright – not set to a different date or time or anything like that.

He made sure that everything was prepared the night before! He arrived at their meeting location and hour early too! He was sure that his watch was set on the right time, so why? Where's Fuji? His eyes went wide at the sudden thought that entered his mind.

'What if I got the date wrong? What if it was next weekend?' he searched his brain for answers. His memory wasn't bad so he was pretty sure that Fuji said that it was that weekend. And then, he stopped, eyes going wide with horror.

'What if something happened to him?' he shuddered at the thought, taking out his phone and immediately calling the other boy. All he got in return was Fuji's voice mail asking him to leave a message and Echizen only got agitated every running second.

He called Fuji a few more times after, getting even more frustrated that the other wouldn't answer, and stared at the small screen. A drop of water fell on the screen and another on his forehead as he looked to see where it came from.

It was then that it started raining.

The raven-haired boy went inside the theatre to wait until the rain passed, looking around and at the posters to pass the time. It took about 30 minutes before the rain finally stopped, though the boy was still a bit wet from the sudden downpour.

He groaned. 'Of all the things I could've forgotten, I forgot to bring an umbrella. I should've known that this would happen,' he mentally scolded himself, only to scold himself even more when he remembered that he didn't even check the weather forecast before heading out of the house.

He slowly started making his way home. He definitely wasn't in a good mood.

The boy passed by the burger joint that he usually went to with Momo and Eiji and saw two familiar faces that came out from the place.

Fuji came out of the shop smiling very happily with Tezuka holding the door open from behind him.

Echizen stood far away from them once he realized who they were, though not from anger. He just stood there, eyes wide open, and let the remaining droplets of water from his hair run down his cheek.

He dropped his head, bangs now covering his face and ran. He ran with all his might, gritting his teeth, passed the two.

Fuji's eyes opened and his head turned toward the younger boy once he recognized him. "E-echizen!" he shouted, catching the other's attention.

The raven-haired boy stopped but did not turn around. Fuji hurried towards him, eyes closing again, his lips pressed in a thin line with guilt and worry.

"E-echizen, I-I'm sorry. I was going to head over right now – I visited Tezuka earlier and his grandfather suddenly collapsed and we had to take him to the hospital – and my phone died. I didn't mean – I'm sorry," Fuji explained, shoulders sagging. His voice cracked with worry, worry that the other would start hating him for what he did.

"Fuji-sempai, it's fine. I understand," Echizen replied and Fuji relaxed at the statement. Tezuka slowly walked closer to them, watching them talk but watching the expressions on Echizen`s face more intently.

"Its fine," the younger boy repeated before turning to Tezuka. "I hope your grandfather gets better, buchou," he placed a grin on his face, hoping that no one noticed that it was forced, before saying, " See ya!" and dashing off.

"Fuji," called the stoic captain before Fuji could even move. "Let him be."

Fuji complied. He stayed there, biting his lip and stared as the younger boy ran away from him.

===TT^TT===

Echizen didn't eat as much that night, didn't go for seconds of rice like he usually did before. He stuck himself in his room after dinner and locked the doors, wanting some time for himself since he wasn't really used to such a feeling.

The plushie sat right next to his pillow and when he saw it, he gently took it into his hands and stared at it. It didn't help his mood like he thought it would. The next thing he knew, he had already flung the plushie across the room.

He lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a while before sitting back up and looked at the plushie. After heaving a sigh, he stood up from the bed and slowly walked towards the plushie, releasing another sigh after he picked it up. "Stupid Fuji-sempai," he said out loud, taking the plushie to his bed and placed it beside his pillow, like where it was before, and drifted off to sleep. Though he couldn't help but wonder why he was so frustrated in the first place.

* * *

**A/N: ... I am making Ryoma overreact aren't I?... I'm sorry if you guys think it's too much... But this is how I see him cope with the problem in my head... I'm not sure why... I'm not making Ryoma too out of character am I?...ARGH I can't believe I wrote all this drama! OAO... It'll get better... I think...This is quite a short chapter isn't it? The next one's longer I promise... though that means that it'll take much more time to write... HAAAAH... I'll try my best still~**

**And thanks to one of the reviewers ... (Sorry... you didn't leave a name of any sort) for pointing out that fact about yaoi~ I should've thought of that the first time hehehe... Thanks though! Forgive me for my mistake guys~**

**Blackxxcat013**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Echizen got up late on the Monday that came and surely he was late for practice, very late. However, he didn't really want to think about Tezuka's practice nore did he want to go to practice but then, Coach Ryuuzaki would probably call his father and Nanjiroh would call him and... That would just be troublesome.

He walked slowly towards the courts, ignoring the stares that the other club members were giving him, and slowly looked around. 'Regulars and ex-regulars are in Courts C and D again. Great,' he thought to himself. Not until inside the court did he notice that the smiling genius of the group wasn't there.

"Echizen, you're late," Tezuka said from behind him and he didn't feel like saying anything else so he just smirked at the older male.

Tezuka's eyebrow twitched, trying to hold in his patience, before he heaved a sigh and looked down at Echizen again. "Echizen," the former captain began after waking behind the boy. "I'd like to talk to you after practice," and with that, he left.

The raven-haired boy shrugged. He didn't want to talk to the guy but,'Oh well, I don't have anything better to do anyway,' he thought. He adjusted his shoelaces and wondered if he should pulverize Momo in a match or join the others in their laps. 'Momo-sempai is getting boring. I'll just run the laps then and watch other people suffer,' he thought, only to stop himself when he realized that he's beginning to sound as sadistic as a certain someone who he's trying to be angry at. He bagan to jog away when he felt a hand hold him back.

"Echizen..." his voice was low and worried.

"Sempai," the smaller boy answered, turning back and looking into the other's eyes.

"I'm really sorry about the other day. I swear, my phone really did die and I was really on the way to meet you but – "

"It's fine Fuji-sempai," he faked a smile. "The movie was great!" he answered before turning away.

"But... at least let me make it up to you," the older one suddenly said, stopping the other in his tracks.

"Sempai," he answered sternly. "The reason why we were going to watch the movie was because we were going to make up for the time that we would lose when you start practicing for your graduation ceremony. How many times do I have to tell you that it's fine? So just relax and go beat up Eiji-sempai or something," Echizen sighed and walked away. 'Looks like beating Momo to a pulp would be better after all.'

===*o*===

"E-echizen... c-can we rest a bit?" Momo lay on the ground panting heavily, the sweat on his forehead sliding down on his cheek.

"But you like it don't you?" came the younger boy's answer as he smirked down at the other. He hovered over the other and stared down at him.

"It – it was fun," Momo said in between breathes. "But I'm tired. If only I could sleep right here," he stretched his arms to the side and closed his eyes.

"Come on, sempai," the younger one purred. "Let's have another round."

"Are you kidding me?" Momo sat up, causing Echizen to step back. "You almost killed me in that last match! Did I do something to you these past few days? It's like you want me dead! And look at you!" Momo gestured at the other boy. "How come you're not as sweaty as I am, huh?" he began fanning himself with his hand. "Why are you standing so close to me anyways? It's hot, shoo shoo!" he shooed the other boy away and Echizen could only roll his eyes at him.

"You're no fun at all," he said, adjusting his cap over his head.

"Well, SO-RRY for not being in the mood to be tortured by the likes of you!" Momo snarled. "I can't die yet. I haven't even asked Ann out on a date yet," he whispered to himself.

"Did you say something?" Echizen threw the spiky-haired junior a towel and wiped his own forehead with his own towel. "I wasn't paying attention," he said, watching the adjacent court without actually meaning to.

The older of the two sighed. "Can't you just, go and ask Eiji-sempai to play with you? I'm tired and I don't want some shorter, younger guy driving me over the edge," Momo stood up and made his way towards the bench. Just as the spiky-haired junior sat down, Eiji stucj his head into their court.

"Watcha guy's doin'?" he asked happily. "Fuji doesn't want to play with me and Oishi's busy talking to Coach Ryuzaki. And I don't really want to join the guinea pigs testing over there," he added, shuddering before pointing at Inui, Taka, Kaidoh and the rest of the club members with them.

"So, you're bored," Echizen stated flatly to which Eiji nodded. Momo's face brightened up as he straightened his back.

"That's great! Echizen's bored too! Why don't you guys have a match?" he suggested, excitedly, and Eiji clasped his hands together and started looking at Echizen with pleading eyes.

Both the red-headed senior and the spiky-haired junior were looking at him expectantly and he answered them with a raised eyebrow, hoping that they would give up and go away. But when added pouts into their expressions, both of which didn't suit them that much, he grunted and made his way to his side of the court.

Eiji pumped a fist in the air and made his way to his side.

The younger boy served the ball when he thought that Eiji was in position. He hit so much force that it could've bruised Eiji's cheek and knocked him out cold if the other didn't move.

"Gah! That was scary! What are you trying to do?" Eiji yelled at him, the younger one crossing his arms in front of his chest and rolling his eyes. 'Here we go again,' he thought. "I don't want to play with you anymore! You little meanie!"

"Geez, stop whining Eiji-sempai! You're acting like such a kid, can't you grow up? Oishi-sempai's spoiling you too much!" Momo stared at him and gawked. No one expected the cool Echizen to blow his head off like this. Eiji hid himself behind his racket, as if it could hide hime from everyone.

Momo shook his head, trying to get back to his senses, and walked towards his upperclassman, placing an arm on his shoulder. "O-oi, Echizen. I know you don't really want to play and you've been in a sour mood lately but that's just going too far."

"You too, Momo-sempai! You're spoiling him too much! You should at least rid him of his endless whining," Echizen answered, annoyed. He walked away nearly leaving the court.

"Hey! You know I'm not! That's just Eiji-sempai being... Eiji-sempai!" Momo yelled back.

Echizen rolled his eyes again before muttering 'idiot' under his breathe.

"What did you call me?" Momo yelled after him.

Echizen halted. It was the faintest whisper ever. Momo wasn't supposed to hear it. He could barely even hear it himself and yet Momo had heard him from across the court. The younger boy heaved out a sigh. This wasn't going to go well. 'But then,' he thought. 'Why not?'

"I called you an idiot, idiot," Echizen smirked, placing his hands on his hips as he faced the spiky-haired teen.

"Why you little..." Momo said through gritted teeth, corners of his lips slightly going up. "Get back here and show me what you've got! Let's see if you can still say that!"

Echizen's smirk only widened as he got into position. He threw Momo the ball, indicating that he should serve.

Just as Momo threw the ball into the air, Eiji walked into the court dragging a very confused Oishi with him.

"See! See!" he said, pointing an accusing finger at the two people on the court.

The former vice-captain looked at the two standing on the court, ready to start a match, and heaved a sigh. "What happened this time, Eiji?" Oishi asked, crossing his arms over his chest and faced the red-haired teen.

"Th-they were fighting! And more importantly,they wouldn't let me play!" he yelled, moving his arms up and down before pouting like a kid.

"Come on, Eiji. It's Momo and Echizen, you know how they are. I'm sure that their argument wasn't that big of a deal. And more importantly, you could've invited me to play with you," Oishi explained.

Eiji pouted even more. "But you were busy talking with Coah Ryuzaki."

"You could've waited until I was done," Oishi answered.

The two others who were left neglected on the court looked at each other before deciding to sneak out of the court since the Golden Pair were already in their own little world, snickering as they did so. A few seconds after leaving the court though, the two were seen somewhere by the benches beside the clubroom arguing over something trivial.

By the end of the day, the two boys were found in the clubroom glaring at each other, thus creating an awkward atmosphere in the room. Most of the club members tried to ignore them, but it wasn't that easy. They had been arguing for most of the day now and they had never been mad at each other for this long before. I wasn't until Tezuka came in the room that the members seemed to relax.

The clubroom became noisier and the awkward atmosphere the minute before had been forgotten. One by one, all of the others left, leaving only Tezuka and Echizen behind. Momo and the rave-haired boy had already made up in the short span of time and the spiky-haired teen had gone ahead to fetch his bike from the racks.

On the other hand, Fuji left with Eiji just to accompany his best friend to the gate and agreed to wait for Tezuka there.

The former captain made his way to the raven-haired boy and placed a tennis ball in front of him. The younger one smirked as he gazed up at Tezuka, who was only staring back.

"This Saturday, the same courts that we played at before. I'll bring the tennis balls," Tezuka said.

"Does Fuji-sempai know?"

"No, he doesn't."

"Why? Don't want him to see you lose again?"

"He has nothing to do with this." The younger boy only hummed in reply.

Tezuka had picked up his bag, thinking what else he wanted to say. He opened his mouth, determined to let the younger boy hear a piece of his mind when the clubroom door burst open.

"Oi! Echizen! Come on, let's go!" Momo said, all too loudly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. You don't have to yell," the younger boy stole a quick glance at Tezuka before placing his bag over his shoulder with a huff.

"Don't let your guard down," Tezuka suddenly said before Echizen stepped out of the clubroom, earning a smirk from the raven-haired boy before he disappeared from the former captain's line of sight. Tezuka stared at the door for a moment before lookig at his racket. "This is for the best..."

===OAO===

The rest of the week was uneventful, except for the occassional fights between Momo and Kaidoh or between Momo and Echizen, but that was already considered normal in their area. Fuji would still be by Tezuka's side and Echizen would unconsciously steal glances at him at times before mentally scolding himself not to do so.

Saturday came fast and the raven-haired boy was more than ready to head to the courts.

When he arrived at the meeting place, as expected Tezuka was already there. "Ready?" Tezuka asked, standing up and walking towards the younger boy.

Echizen nodded, placing his bag down beside the bench, and took out his racket. He walked over to his side of the court, bending his knees a little and stood in position. He let Tezuka serve.

As expected from the former captain, he started with a powerful shot. He hit the ball really hear, causing the ball to fly full speed at Echizen. This caught the younger boy in surprise but he reacted just in time. He returned the ball with full force, not backing down from the challenge.

The match was really intense with both players using their signature moves and techniques at each other. As time flew by, the match became more and more of an endurance test.

Halfway through the match, they were tied, 3 games to 3. Echizen wasn't happy about the score. He crouched on his side of the court, panting. An idea coursed through his mind and he stood up slowly, a smirk prominent on his features.

"Let's make this game a little more interesting," he said. Tezuka raised an eyebrow at him and nodded, urging him to continue.

"Whoever wins… will get Fuji-sempai."

"What does he have to do with any of this?"

"You like him, don't you, buchou?" the older boy didn't answer. "That's a yes then," he smirked as he got himself into position, bouncing the ball and serving it to the other.

Tezuka hit it back, his eyes intently glued to the other's.

Echizen refused to back down. He ran towards the ball and sent Tezuka a 'Drive B' before quickly jogging back to the baseline.

"Blaming it on other people just because he doesn't notice your feelings," Tezuka said while returning the shot.

The ball shot past a shocked Echizen, his eyes wide.

"What are you standing there for? Go ahead and serve the ball," Tezuka said as he turned to walk to the baseline.

Echizen shook his head slightly as he struggled to get his thoughts back together. He wasn't usually the type to let anyone mess up his thoughts during a match. He tightened his grip on the ball and tossed it up in the air, sending the other a 'Twist Serve', only to find the ball shooting right past him.

Tezuka's words had affected him much more than he had initially thought.

===^.^===

Tezuka easily won the match with the score 6 games to 3.

The raven-haired boy's performance had plummeted after the older boy had said those words to him. He found it hard to react to Tezuka's shots. He found it hard to concentrate on the game.

He fell onto the bench right after, his head hung low.

"It's not my fault that Fuji kept coming to me when I came back. That's something he did of his own accord. And as far as I know, we're only friends," Tezuka stated, looking down at the boy and wiping his sweat before going to his bag to pack up.

Silence filled the courts for a while, interrupted by a long zip as Tezuka closed his bag and hoisted it on his shoulder. He stopped in front of the younger boy on his way out, looking down at the other whose head was still intent on looking at the ground.

"Stop running away from your problems, Echizen," he said, slowly turning onto his heel and walked out. "Looks like I was wrong to choose you as Seigaku's pillar."

The younger boy listened to Tezuka's footsteps as they faded and faded. When he was sure that the other was already gone, he looked up and stared at the empty court, releasing a breath he, himself, didn't know was holding in. He carelessly put his racket into his bag, throwing his towel in it as well, and looked back at the court. "Well," he said to himself, his shoulders sagging. "I tried."

* * *

**A/N**: **Well~~ how'd you guys like it? Ummm…. I actually have nothing much to say…. Except for… Happy Halloween? Anyways~~ you guys have fun and get your candy… as long as you don't it too much at once and get yourselves high on sugar and cavities.. and then crash when your sugar high crashes too…. And brush your teeth well!~~ LOL… **

** On another note… It seems I've put a lot of drama into this chapter as well… And… I've mixed two chapters from my draft into one… so there's only about three more chapters after this… What do you guys think will happen? Is Ryoma still as angsty? Maybe it's just hormones~ lol~ **

** Thank you for reading~~ And please review~~ Have a Happy Halloween (or I hope you had a Happy Halloween.. depending on what part of the world you live in) ~~ Muhahahahahaha~ *cough*~ **

**Blackxxcat013**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Echizen went home late that day. According to his cousin, Fuji had gone to his house to see him, but he didn't care. He had nothing to do with older boy, at least, not anymore.

Nanako had given him an envelope after dinner. Her face was sad and worried as she did so, but she didn't say anything. The raven-haired boy didn't look inside the envelope until he was alone in his room.

He stared at the envelope, guessing that it had something to do with leaving Japan, again. He tore open the envelope and reached inside, revealing, as he guessed, a flight ticket. It was then that Nanako called him to the living room saying that Nanjiroh was on the phone.

"When do I leave?" he asked.

"is that the way to greet your own father?" Nanjiroh answered, pretending to sound hurt and earning a grunt from the other. Nanjiroh laughed to himself, as if he had just told the funniest joke ever, before clearing his throat and became serious.

"You're leaving this coming Saturday," Nanjiroh let out a dry laugh. "Aren't you happy, boy? You can still say good bye to your friends!"

"Sure, whatever," an awkward silence had enveloped their conversation. The younger one, being too eager to go back to his room, had decided to end the call. "That's all, right? I'm going to sleep. See you next week," he said before finally putting down the phone.

The raven-haired boy heaved a sigh and stared at the communication device.

"Ryoma-san…" Nanako called from behind him.

"It's fine," he said, before going up the stairs.

He lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. The lights were already shut off, leaving the room to be completely dark.

Echizen's eyes adapted quickly to the dark. He scanned his room, looking for anything memorable, and found the plushie that was on his bedside table. He took from the table gently, as if afraid that it would crumble under his touch.

'Oh, yeah… Fuji-sempai's graduation is on Saturday. It looks like I won't be able to come after all,' he thought.

===.===

On the Monday that came, Echizen went to the tennis club to inform Coach Ryuzaki of the news. The former regulars, as expected, weren't there. It was the week when they practice their graduation ceremony after all.

It was a disaster telling Momo the news. He was always engaged in a headlock. Meanwhile, Kaidoh only nodded at him and told him good luck. The freshmen trio was also pretty shocked by the sudden announcement and that nosy girl wailed her lungs out.

'It was a good thing Eiji-sempai wasn't there…' he thought.

===+.+===

After Echizen left that afternoon, the former regulars passed by. Tezuka and Fuji left first, having to go visit Tezuka's grandfather, who was still in the hospital.

Oishi chose that time to ask questions. "How was club today? Had fun?"

Momo and Kaidoh looked at each other before replying.

"Erm… yeah… I guess," Momo said, reaching the back of his head and started scratching there.

"Great," Oishi commented, letting out a big sigh before continuing. "This week is going to be so tiring… You guys are going to come to the afterparty right?" he glanced at the two, expectantly.

Eiji jumped onto Oishi's back, eyes wide with delight. "You have to come! It'll be fun! Please," he pleaded, lips already protruding into a pout.

"We're coming… Too bad Echizen won't be able to see you graduate with him leaving and all…" Momo answered, unconsciously.

Kaidoh's eyes widened and so did the others.

"What?" the older ones yelled at the same time. Inui merely pushed up his glasses and readied his signature green notebook.

Kaidoh hit Momo upside the head. "You idiot! We weren't supposed to tell!"

Momo got ready to retaliate but instead, he dropped his gaze and muttered an 'Oh yeah…' to himself.

"Wait… Echizen is leaving?" Oishi asked. The younger two just nodded.

"When is he leaving?" Taka asked. The two soon to be seniors looked at him. It seems that they forgot that he was there with them.

"He's leaving on Saturday," Momo answered.

"Same day as your graduation," Kaidoh added.

"Ahhh! Geez! He could've told us too!" Eiji whined.

"There's an 80% chance that he did that so we wouldn't worry…" Inui suddenly said, surprising all of them.

"And?" Oishi asked, voicing out the anxiety in everyone else's faces.

"A 15% chance that he lost in a match with one of our members and 5% chance that he…" Inui paused, creating an unnecessary dramatic effect.

"He?" the others asked in unison.

"He hates us," Inui continued.

"Nah! That can't be it," Momo answered while preparing his stuff. "He wouldn't bother coming here today if he did hate us."

"That's why it's the least likely choice," Inui stated.

"That's right," Oishi said to no one in particular.

"Oh! I know! Let's throw him a farewell party on Friday!" Eiji exclaimed, turning to Oishi with gleaming eyes. "I'm sure that he'll like it! Let's go invite Fuji and Tezuka too!"

"Ah! Sempai… Echizen said not to tell anyone, especially Fuji-sempai and Tezuka-buchou," Kaidoh said.

"Why?" Oishi asked. "They were in the team. Wouldn't it be better to just tell them?"

"He didn't say why, sempai," Momo replied, shrugging.

"Oh well… It looks like Fuji and Tezuka aren't invited to the party," Taka said finally and looked at the others.

Suddenly, it felt like their good bye wouldn't be a happy one.

* * *

**A/N:** **Woah! This one's SO short! I'm sorry. This chapter isn't as important as the others… but I don't want to reveal anything else yet… I hope you guys understand.**

** Taka's gets more appearances here because I feel like I just killed him and tossed him into some unknown sea somewhere across the world. I actually feel kind of bad that no one really notices him there… me as well.**

** Two chapters left~ Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It switched to Angst after all... I'm sorry I make so many changes in the genre... I haven't really grasped the whole genre thing... and.. it troubles me... I'll do better I promise!**

** Thanks for reading guys and please review!**

**Blackxxcat013**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Echizen woke up late the next day, laying in bed for a few more minutes before actually getting out of bed a good thirty minutes later.

He walked down to the dining room sleepily in his pyjamas while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Had a good sleep Ryoma-san?" Nanako greeted. Her cousin could only nod.

"You went to Seigaku yesterday, right?" she asked again, placing their breakfast on the dining table.

Echizen, who was already seated comfortably on a chair opposite of Nanako's, nodded as he grabbed a slice of bread and nibbled on it. He wasn't really hungry.

"Did you say goodbye to your friends?"

The younger one stopped chewing. He lowered the bread to his plate and stared at it. "Somewhat…" he answered.

"Do you think you'd still be able to see them after?"

"Unless we go out of our way to actually meet each other, then there's a slim chance," this time, he brought the slice of bread to his mouth and took a huge bite, placing it back down on his plate and getting up to get a glass of milk.

"Aren't they going to see you off?" the younger shook his head.

"It's the seniors' graduation," he simply says and Nanako's lips turn into a frown, an awkward silence falling around them.

"I can still see them before leaving, I guess. My flight is in the afternoon anyway," he shrugged, taking a sip from his glass of milk.

"Ah! That's good then!" Nanako answered happily, clapping her hands once without even realizing it.

They continued to eat in silence, albeit an awkward one on Nanako's part because she couldn't really find any similar interests between them that would be good to talk about.

Once the boy finished eating, Nanako was still in a daze. "I'm done. Thanks for the meal," he said nonchalantly, bringing her back to reality, and left for his room once again.

Nanako blinked at him, once, twice, before answering. "Ah. Okay… Uh…" she had wanted to say more, somewhat ease her cousin's presumed sadness. But all the words seem to get stuck down her throat and she could only sink back in her chair and heaving out a huge sigh. "Uncle is such an idiot."

=== x ===

Echizen went back up to his room afterwards, starting to pack the things he would need after much debate of what those things would be.

He was nearly done packing when his eyes landed on the Karupin plushie on his bedside table. He took the plushie into his hands and inspected it, as if looking at it for the very first time.

"I did tell him that I might come…" he sighed and eyed the plushie some more, before closing his eyes and leaning to rest his elbows on his knees, arms and hands hung low. "This is troublesome…"

=== +.+ ===

On the following days, Echizen went to Seigaku to practice with the club – also to kill some time so as to not die of boredom at his home – for about half of their practice session and left, missing the time of his upperclassmen's arrivals.

On the Friday that came, he didn't come over to practice – his tennis bag missing and his cap nowhere in sight. He came over to the club to watch them in court one last time before he leaves. He waited for the practice to finish. And even though he didn't plan to at first, he met up with the former regulars. But, that day, Tezuka and Fuji weren't there.

"O'chibi! You're here! Long time no see!" Eiji exclaimed, dropping his bag as soon as he sees the younger boy and running to him for a huge hug.

"Nice to see you, too, sempai," he answered, a little bit surprised that the other wasn't squeezing the life out of him. He patted the red-head's arms, smiling as he looked up at the others who came with him.

"It's good to see you again, Echizen," Oishi greeted, the others nodding at Echizen right after.

The youngest of them all merely nodded in reply.

"Ochibiiii! Are you really not going to come watch our graduation ceremenoy tomorrow? Do you not want us to say goodbye to you when you leave?" the red-head wailed, hugging him just a little bit tighter.

"I haven't really decided yet," he stared at Oishi blankly, mainly because he can't really turn his head 180 degrees and look at Eiji, firstly, because Eiji's head is resting on his shoulder – hence blocking his way to do so, and second, that was physically impossible.

The raven-haired boy wouldn't have realized that his upperclassmen knew about his departure the next day if Momo didn't choke on his water. His eyes widened, turning immediately into a glare, and Momo expected to see the blinding lights of heaven and pretty angels coming down to take him, but instead, Echizen just heaved a sigh.

"You already know huh? I guess that would make this easier," the younger boy said, not bothering to hide the sadness in his voice.

"Do you know when you're going to come back?" Oishi asked.

"I don't know. It depends," he shrugged. The atmosphere in the room became heavy, until a few minutes after when Taka decided to break the silence.

"Let's go to my place!" he paused, awkwardly looking at the others and shyly shrinking in his place because of the sudden outburst. "For you last Kawamura's sushi until you come back...?" he squeaked, it wasn't meant to come out that way.

"That's a great idea!" Eiji answered a little too loudly. "Come on! You have to come! Please!"

Echizen rolled his eyes. There goes his sempai's puppy dog pout again. He looked at the others' expressions, the corners of his mouth slowly turning up into a smile. "Okay. Let's go."

===+0+===

The walk towards the sushi shop was filled with joyous laughter. They were teasing each other here and there. And in an instant, they were standing right in front of the sushi restaurant.

The youngest of them all walked into the restaurant, head a little bit lowered so as to not hit the small banner hanging from the doorframe. A loud 'pak' sound came from behind him and he turned around to find the others almost hovering over him. "Uhh…"

"SURPRISE!" everyone called out in unison.

"Happy uhh… farewell party?" Eiji said, nearly mumbling to himself. The phrase didn't sound right. He turns to Oishi with a pout. "Oishi! That's not right. Farewells aren't happy. Why are we giving him a farewell party? Wouldn't that seem that we don't want him here?"

Oishi opened his mouth, ready to answer, when Momo pushed his way through from behind them. "Argh! Who cares? We're here to eat and have fun with the little brat over there! Let's go!" he exclaimed while walking over to Echizen and dragging him to a table, the others taking a while before they laughed and followed suit.

The party was fun and, in a blink of an eye, it had ended.

"O'chibi, you have to call me every minute when you get there!" the red-head hugged the other boy, squeezing him and not intending to let go anytime soon.

"That's a waste of money. Besides, it's not like I'll be there forever," Echizen answered with a grin on his face.

"Yeah, but still..." the older one said, releasing the boy immediately and stepping back.

"Do you really not want us to see you off tomorrow?" Oishi asked, the others standing behind him.

"Nah, it's okay."

"You BETTER keep in touch, you brat!" Momo yelled, grabbing Echizen into a headlock. "Or else, I'll make you come back."

He nodded; looking at his upperclassmen's faces and took a peak at the door, another look at their faces and then at his wristwatch.

"I have to go now," he started, a tiny hint of sadness in his voice. "My cousin is waiting for me at home."

"Have a safe flight Echizen," Oishi said with a smile.

"O'chibi..." Eiji gave the younger boy another hug. "I'll miss you..."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll miss you too," he answered, ruffling Eiji's red hair. His last line wasn't only for Eiji, but for the others as well.

===+.+===

It felt like such a long walk from Taka's sushi shop to his house. It felt like something was missing. Maybe it was only because it was too quiet, or maybe it was because he had a lot in mind.

When he got home, Nanako immediately handed him the phone. His father was on the line. They had a brief conversation about where they would meet the next day. The phone call didn't help his mood. If anything, it only made him feel much worse than before.

He quietly ate dinner hours later and helped dry the dishes for a change. Soon after, he went up to his room, wondering how the next day will unfold.

* * *

**A/N:I'm sorry guys...Two weeks ago, I was extremely busy... I had this major project that was supposed to be due on the last Monday... so I rushed to finish it... Then it turns out that it was due on Wednesday and I had a lot of free time for that subject... though every day, I had heaps of Math homework that kept me from typing. This weekend, we moved to a new house, so I didn't have Internet the whole weekend~~ But, on a positive note~~ I had a lot of time to type the stuff~~ Unfortunately... I could only finish this and around half of the next chapter... I'm still working on it though~~Hope you enjoy~~**

**P.S when I read through these again... I feel like I'm not trying hard enough... or is it just me? Thanks guys for reading until here... there are two more chapters left~~ Please do review~~**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The raven-haired boy woke up early the next day. Siiting up on his bed, he stared at the only baf that he was going to bring for his trip. He looked over at his bedside table, where he placed the plushie again after a few days ago.

He sighed, carefully taking the plushie from the table as if it was some pretty delicate object that would break by a single touch, and inspected it once more. He smiled to himself, mumbling, "This is really troublesome," before placing the plushie in his bag.

Standing and stretching, he smiled wider. "Let's go watch that graduation ceremony then."

=== ^.^ ===

The Seigaku gym was getting busier and busier. There were a lot of families who came to watch the ceremony. The students themselves were getting restless while waiting for the ceremony to start, sad that a period of their school life had come to an end and excited that a new period will start soon.

They were gathered outside the front of the gym, waiting to be called and preparing for their entrance march.

Eiji was bouncing around, both excited and anxious.

"Do you think O'chibi would come? He would, wouldn't he?" his eyes brightened at the thought. "Nah... he'd probably want to sleep in.

Fuji, who was standing beside Eiji, laughed at the thought of Echizen coming to the ceremony in his pajamas and with messy tresses, though all that he could really do was hope that the younger boy would come and attend their graduation. He wasn't exactly sure why he wanted the freshman to come, he just did. Then again, he never really got to make-up with the younger boy after that movie-hospital mishap. He wasn't even sure if the other was still mad at him.

'Oh!' he chuckled to himself. He now had a reason to see the other one, to apologize.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Eiji told him that the ceremony was beginning. 'Here it goes!' he put on his best smile, this was something important after all.

=== 3 ===

Echizen got to the Seigaku gym just in time to see the end of the Principal's welcoming speech, his white cap in between his fingers and wearing the same red sweater and pair of shorts that he wore when he arrived in Japan on that day of a minor tennis tournament.

A pair of teachers announced for the students with special awards to come up and claim them, finding Fuji get up from the mass of people in the gym, and watched them slowly walk towards the stage.

"Echizen!" he turned to his right, spotting Momo running towards him.

"You came."

"Yeah. I had free time."

"Are you staying for the afterparty?"

"No, I can't. The flight is right after the ceremony so I have to leave somewhere in between."

"Oh. That sucks," the upperclassman leaned against the wall and raised his right hand to the back of his neck. "How long are you going to stay for then?"

"I'm going to watch them receive their certificates at least. Or hopefully watch them get their certificates," he watched as Fuji smiled for the camera and descended the stairs with his award.

The ceremony continued smoothly and the raven-haired boy was getting tired of waiting by the side. It was the first time, he noted, that there was an awkward moment between him and the junior beside him.'This day is really weird,' he thought.

Slowly, he straightened up as the principal started calling up the students for their certificates. Looking at his watch, he sighed in relief. There was still time to spare.

One by one, the former regulars were called up the stage and were handed their certificates of graduation from junior high school. Echizen watched as they climbed down the stairs, certificates in hand, some of them happy that the junior high school year was finally over, some holding back tears and some were just happy in general.

Turning to Momo, the younger boy smirked when he saw how hard the older boy tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Don't tell anyone, you brat!" he teased, laughing as he the younger boy in a headlock and ignoring the glares that he was receiving from parents around him.

After Momo let go of him, Echizen dug into his pocket and took out an envelope. "Give this to Fuji-sempai. Tell him to take care and Tezuka-sempai too. Tell him that I apologize... For being stubborn the last time," putting on his cap, he walked away, leaving a stunned Momo behind and waving back when he did so.

=== XP ===

The principal left the stage and everyone started to clap. The ceremony had finally ended. The stident body started cheering for themselves and their schoolmates for surviving that far.

Fuji was happy of the accomplishment but he couldn't help but feel like something was missing. He didn't see that white cap anywhere in the gym, much less the boys raven hair. He wondered if it would be alright if he stopped by without notice.

The former regulars gathered around Fuji, greeting each other 'Congratulations' for finishing a phase of their high school lives.

The brown – haired prodigy looked around once more, checking again for that white cap or that mass of black hair but, once again, failed.

Momo and Kaidoh ran towards them shouting their congratulations at their group.

Fuji gave them a smile and a nod of gratitude, not really wanting to say much. "H-have you seen Echizen?" he was hesitant, but there was a slim chance.

The spiky-haired junior nodded and gave him an envelope. "He said to tell you to take care. And Tezuka-buchou, Echizen says he's sorry about the other day... or something like that."

"O'chibi was here?" Momo nodded. "Why didn't he wait 'til the end then? That meanie!"

"He said something about his flight being right after the ceremony, so he had to leave earlier," Momo answered.

Fuji gasped, drawing all attention to him, and he rushed to his older sister, who emerged from the crowd of parents that made their way to their children. The other regulars stared at him in shock.

"What did that letter say, nya?" Eiji blinked, watching as his best friend left with his sister in a hurry.

"I don't know," Momo answered, a little shocked when he spotted Fuji's younger brother appear at the gym gates. " I never got to read it."

Walking towards the regulars, he pouted to his back. "Did I just see my brother and my sister leave?"

"Yeah," Oishi answered. "Did you come to watch the ceremony?"

"Yea – ugh – no. Do you know where he's going?" Yuuta asked again.

"Nope. He just bolted out of here with your sister," Oishi answered again.

There was a sigh from the former tennis club captain. "What are you doing? To the airport. Hurry," and he swiftly exited the gym, leaving the others in a state of confusion before they realized what he had just said and followed him.

There was still time.

* * *

**A/N: Okay... I just want to explain the whole ceremony thing. I based it off of the graduation ceremony that I experienced in the Philippines... when I did graduate from elementary... But I have really little knowledge of how the Japanese actually perform their graduation ceremony. And I wasn't sure if they handed out diplomas or not for a junior high graduation so I just wrote in certificates instead. If you do have any information, I'd still love to hear them~ I'm sorry for just replacing these on my own... I did do some research... but... I didn't really have the time to edit my drafts...**

**Thankyou for reading... the last chapter is coming up~ Please review~~**

**Blackxxcat013**


	19. Chapter 19: Final Chapter

Chapter 19: Final Chapter

'_Fuji-sempai…'_

He was getting anxious. The younger boy had left way earlier than he did and it was a long way to the airport.

_'Hmmm… There's nothing much to write. Or maybe I'm just no good at this. Thank you for being there when I was injured. It was weird, yes, but I somewhat enjoyed the company.'_

Rush hour was coming. Soon, the streets will be clogged in traffic.

_'And… I guess you don't know just how it lifted my spirits up whenever you were over.'_

As they neared an intersection, the traffic light turned red. He cursed silently. The gods were favoring him today.  
_'The other day, when we were supposed to watch that movie… I got really mad… or… annoyed. And now that I think back, my actions were a little bit unnecessary.'_

The traffic lights turned green and the car started to move again. Everything seemed slower than they actually were.

_'I'm sorry… I lied. I didn't get to watch the movie… so I don't really know how it actually is. And you don't have to worry about making it up to me anymore. I'm leaving today anyway. Aren't you happy though? I came to see your graduation. Just like you wanted.'_

Everything became a blur. He didn't know when they got there. Once the car had stopped, he found himself pushing the door open and running out into the building.

_'Too bad we still haven't finished our match, huh? That's okay. I have a reason to come back.'_

His eyes were open, revealing those determined blue orbs. He was getting desperate. Mentally, he was laughing at himself. He probably looked stupid at the moment but he didn't care. All he wanted right now was to find the younger boy and to at least give him a proper goodbye before he leaves.

'_I don't know when I'll be coming back this time, so… I'm going to take this chance. Even if I don't see you anymore and even if you choose him, then at least I told you. _I kind of like you._ Spending these last few days without any contact with you made me realize that and I guess I was happy… until he came back.'_

His tears were threatening to fall. He couldn't find the younger boy. Running a hand through his hair, he inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself down.

His phone started to vibrate and he picked it up immediately, hoping that it was the raven-haired boy. "Hello?"

"Fuji. Where are you?" Tezuka's voice was stern but the worry was evident.

Looking around, he answered," Uhh… b-by the vending machines below the escalator. This time, his tears did fall. He sobbed into the phone, sure that the former captain could hear him but that didn't matter anymore.

Running a hand through his hair once more, he looked around. This time for his teammates, his friends. "I-I can't find him Tezuka."

"It's okay. Calm down."

His eyes widened when he heard a 'click' on the other line. He brought his phone away from his ear and looked at the screen. Tezuka had just hung up on him.

He had never felt so alone before.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he immediately turned around, finding his friends all around him, Tezuka's hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go look for him again," Tezuka said, patting his shoulder and giving him an affirming nod. The former regulars smiled encouragingly.

The brown-haired prodigy could only nod back at them, thankful that he has such wonderful friends.

_'I envy him you know… though I don't want to admit it. Though, I can't really get mad at him. I look up to him too. Plus, the look on your face when you're with him… It felt like I would break it if I did get mad at him.'_

They were separated into pairs, searching nearly every corner of the airport.

Fuji's anxiety grew. 'What if he already boarded the plane? What if he's already gone?' These thoughts were going through his head and they weren't helping.

He was paired up with Eiji and somehow, in the middle of the search, they got separated too.

Fuji contemplated if he should give the red headed boy a call, taking his phone out of his pocked just in case. He thought against it. 'He'll manage to find his way to me…' he thought.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, he looked up only to realize that he was back to where the other had found him; near the vending machines, beside the escalator.

A mass of people started walking towards him as an announcement ran through the PA system that a flight was back on schedule and people on the flight could board the plane.

He scanned the crowd, taking in the features of most of the people passing, checking once, twice if any of them could be the person that he was looking for.

'_Ne, Fuji-sempai… if you don't choose him… do you think I'll have a chance? Will you give me that chance?'_

He gasped, eyes widening as he found him. He found that familiar white cap, covering that dark mass of hair and that cocky smirk slowly appearing on the other's features.

_'And if you do give me the chance…'_

Echizen stared at him, his smirk only growing wider for every step he took.

Fuji opened his mouth, wanting to say something but wasn't able to form words. He couldn't think of anything to say. His mind just simply went blank and his mouth became dry.

Echizen got closer, not breaking their eye contact. His smirk softened into a sincere smile as he stopped right in front of the older man, taking in all the details of his features before he left.

Another announcement rang through the PA system. The two boys looked up at the speakers and listened.

Fuji looked at the other boy, a frown placing itself on his face. Echizen looked at him too, his smile still in place. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and adjusted his cap.

"Echizen…"

He started walking but as he passed Fuji he smiled once again. "Thank you."

Fuji's eyes widened and he turned around to see the boy's back. And he smiled, tears began to form in his eyes and he let them fall. No, he wasn't sad.

'_Will you wait for me?'_

He simply had something to look forward to in the future.

-END-

* * *

**A/N: The words in italic is what is written in Echizen's letter... if anyone didn't notice. Thank you ****so much to all of you guys for reading this all… I'm not confident in this ending… but I don't want to change it anymore…. There will be a sequel if you guys want it… Thank you for being patient with me… For lists of works and future works maybe… Look at my profile page~~ I'll try to update that as often as ****I can.**

**Please do review~ And thank you once again~~**

**FOR THOSE WHO WANTED A SEQUEL... I HAVE STARTED UPLOADING ONE CALLED 'WAITING'. LOOK INTO THAT OKAY?**

**Blackxxcat013**


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